Maltese band Beangrowers have hit yet another high point in their soaring music career, with a song from their forthcoming album being chosen for the soundtrack of the latest movie by critically acclaimed German cult director Wim Wenders (The Million Dollar Hotel).
The song, The Priest, is being featured on the soundtrack of the movie, Land of Plenty, alongside the likes of music legends David Bowie, Travis and Savage. Land of Plenty is the title of a Leonard Cohen song that also features on the soundtrack.
"It is amazing that we are on it," Beangrowers guitarist and vocalist Alison Galea told The Times.
Beangrowers is also composed of Ian Schranz and Mark Sansone.
The band was "surprised and honoured" to have one of their tracks selected by Mr Wenders himself for the soundtrack, which is being released worldwide.
The movie's music writers, who are German - and the Beangrowers have a strong following in Germany - needed other songs for the soundtrack, Miss Galea explained. "They knew about us and were looking for our style - alternative, modern rock. So, they gave a selection of music to Wenders and he chose us!"
The Priest, part of the album Dance Dance Baby, which should be launched by the end of the year, is a "slow, moody, dark, but simultaneously 'rocky' song" and was "literally chosen because it fits a particular part of the movie... due to its mood; the lyrics have nothing to do with it," Miss Galea said.
Its presence on the Land of Plenty soundtrack is considered to be a "great promotion" for the upcoming album and is sure to open more doors for the band, whose rise to fame has been fast and furious.
Mr Wenders has many followers, even in the US, and they are destined to be exposed to the Beangrowers and hear their music through their interest in the director and his movies.
The band expects a new following through their possible opening up to the American market - not only through Mr Wenders' followers but also through those who buy the soundtrack for the other A-list artistes on it.
Land of Plenty competed at the Venice Film Festival last week and has been screened in Toronto. Mr Wenders himself had won the Golden Lion at the 1982 Venice Festival for The State of Things - the first in a series of prestigious international acknowledgments.
Land of Plenty is a post 9/11 parable that is half political pamphlet, half yet another exploration of the director's favourite theme - the stranger in a strange land.
A review from Screen Daily lauds the music, saying "the best thing about his (Wenders') latest film is its bedsit-rock soundtrack and certain dialogue-less road movie breaks that take us back to the glory days of The American Friend, or The State of Things".
Mr Wenders' best work of the past decade is considered to be in the field of the music documentary, with award-winning Buena Vista Social Club (1998) and The Soul of a Man (2003). According to Variety, "highlights include a standout soundtrack that mixes scratchy, quasi-Radiohead original tunes by Thom (Thomas Hanreich, formerly of indie group Vivid) with Leonard Cohen back-catalogue numbers such as The Land of Plenty, which seemingly inspired the title".