Villa Rosa in St Julian’s was transformed into a Belgian Consulate this month as comedy film The Obscure life of the Duke of Corsica took its production around several locations in the Maltese Islands. 

The art-house film described as ‘quirky’ features an eccentric billionaire with delusions of grandeur who commissions a bad-tempered architect to build a spectacular final resting place in his name. 

The film stars Peter Stormare (Fargo) and Timothy Spall, known for his role as Wormtail in the Harry Potter franchise. The Obscure life of the Duke of Corsica is one of 20 productions shot in Malta this year which benefitted from a 40 per cent tax credit from the Malta Film Commission. 

Malta Film commissioner Johann Grech said the credit was working to further enhance the local film industry. 

Matt Hookings, who wears two hats as a producer and an actor, said the film had several layers of complexity as best described by his character. Mr Hookings portrays an actor in the film who in turn is depicting St Francis of Assisi. 

“There’s a lot of entanglement, I’m pretty much playing two characters in the film,” Mr Hookings said. 

“I’ve also been feeding a lot of stray cats so I’m feeling a particular attachment to my character.” 

Mr Hookings said despite the film’s ambitious premise, he’s confident audiences will respond well to the feature, and hopes to premiere the film at the Cannes Film Festival next May. 

Co-producer Paul Parker, who served as a local liaison, said the film originally was going to be partly shot in Belgium. However, the production decided to move completely to Malta after a round of location visits. 

“The size of the island makes it easier for us to do more,” Mr Parker said. 

“We get 10 to 11 hours of sunshine and we can move to three different locations in a day if we need to. We can provide both historical and contemporary backdrops. We can do a bit of everything here.”