Carmen is a film by the Maltese-Canadian writer-director Valerie Buhagiar about a Maltese woman who rediscovers herself aged 50. NATASCHA MCELHONE speaks about her leading role.
Carmen, set in 1980s Malta, tells the story of a 50-year-old woman who has spent her entire life looking after her brother, the village priest – a practice which was common until recently. The sad reality, as Carmen finds out, is that once these women’s services are no longer needed, they are left jobless and homeless.
Star Natascha McElhone, well-known for her roles in big-budget Hollywood films like The Truman Show and Solaris, plays the role of Carmen, and although she was new to Malta and its customs, she is familiar with stories like that of the film’s protagonist.
“My family is originally Irish, and my mother was very much brought up in that kind of environment,” says McElhone.
“Many of my own grandmother’s brothers were priests, and she raised her siblings when her mother died in childbirth. It’s a million miles away from me personally, but I had access to it since I was raised Catholic, and half of my family are very religious.”
Despite being an independent production with limited distribution, Carmen has already garnered three awards in Canada and is gaining rave reviews in the US where it has just been released.
It immediately made The New York Times Critics’ Pick list, with Teo Bugbee praising the film’s “fable-like quality”, while The Los Angeles Times says “Natascha McElhone is a wonder in writer-director Valerie Buhagiar’s charming dramedy Carmen, a film about a long-overlooked woman who finally comes out of her shell and puts a lifetime of silent observations to use.”
Those silent observations and experience of village life in Malta 40 years ago are depicted with an authenticity that belies Buhagiar’s Canadian upbringing.
“I wish movies like this got the attention they deserve,” confides McElhone.
“Valerie captures the spirit of a place, or a person, or even the absurd elements of religion. I really respect people who have an organised faith, but I love the way she took a layer off religion without being insulting in any way. There’s a healthy irreverence to it.”
Valerie captures the spirit of a place, or a person, or even the absurd elements of religion
Throughout Carmen, McElhone speaks Maltese or English with a Maltese accent. The actress is no stranger to mastering accents that are not her native British one, but the Maltese one proved to be more challenging than most.
“The tricky thing is that the accent varies from person to person, with some sounding kind of Arabic, while others sound more Italian,” she says.
“So, it was the lack of consistency that made it difficult, but it’s a really interesting accent and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to click into it.”
McElhone immersed herself in island life and has very fond memories of the time she spent in Malta. “Malta was so beautiful, and Gozo was just sensational. I used to go swimming in the sea every morning, which was a complete joy,” she recalls.
The cast and crew also hold a special place in McElhone’s heart.
“We had a lot of fun and were free to keep it very spontaneous and responsive to the environment. We could change things if we needed to accommodate a location or just a new idea that might crop up. It felt like guerrilla filmmaking, which is my favourite kind of moviemaking, to be honest,” she confesses.
In fact, for someone who has starred in many Hollywood blockbusters, McElhone has a deep appreciation of smaller productions like Carmen, which she says have a maverick quality about them.
“Strangely, the more money and resources that are thrown into a production, the more diluted the storytelling can sometimes get because you don’t have one person’s authorship,” she adds.
“I feel that a lot of the stuff that we pump out is derivative of something else, but Valerie’s work feels true and authentic.”
Carmen is currently being screened at the Citadel Cinemas in Gozo and will be screened at the Eden Cinemas from October 5.