It was a car-free day yesterday in Valletta's St Paul's Street, which even enjoyed a power wash the evening before in preparation for the shooting of scenes from Steven Spielberg's untitled historical thriller for Universal and Dreamworks Pictures.

The street was lined with truckloads of equipment, while police officers watched over, crew paced up and down and shop signs in Greek covered the existing ones.

Dolceria Micallef was paid Lm25 to do so and other measures where taken to ensure there would be minimum disturbance and obstruction around number 316, where filming took place.

Westlake Films had sent a letter to residents explaining that some scenes of the movie would be shot there. In agreement with the Valletta local council, the Malta Transport Authority and the police, traffic clearance and restricted parking were organised but the letter had informed residents they would be able to make use of an alternative parking area, with free transport to their homes and back to the car park.

Three-time Academy Award-winning director-producer Steven Spielberg started production on the movie earlier this week and is expected to finish filming in Malta by early August. The production is also being shot on location in various cities in Europe and in New York City.

Universal Pictures should be releasing the film, which is set in the aftermath of the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games, in the US and Canada on December 23.

The film tells the dramatic story of the secret Israeli squad, assigned to track down and assassinate 11 Palestinians believed to have planned the massacre, and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who led it.

"The attack at Munich by Black September and the Israeli response to it was a defining moment in the modern history of the Middle East," Mr Spielberg said.

"It is easy to look back at historic events with the benefit of hindsight. What is not so easy is to try to see things as they must have looked to people at the time. Viewing Israel's response to Munich through the eyes of the men who were sent to avenge that tragedy adds a human dimension to a horrific episode that we usually think about only in political, or military terms.

"By experiencing how the implacable resolve of these men to succeed in their mission slowly gave way to troubling doubts about what they were doing, I think we can learn something important about the tragic stand-off we find ourselves in today," the director said.

Eric Bana (Troy) stars as the Mossad agent charged with leading the band of specialists brought together for this operation. The rest of the cast includes Daniel Craig (Layer Cake), Geoffrey Rush (Shine), Mathieu Kassovitz (Birthday Girl), Hanns Zischler (Walk on Water) and Ciarán Hinds (Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera).

The narrative is based on a number of sources, including the recollections of some of those who were involved. The script is the first feature film written by Tony Kushner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award and many others for his epochal Broadway drama Angels in America. It is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel, Mr Spielberg and Colin Wilson.

Mr Spielberg earned his first two Academy Awards for directing and producing Schindler's List and his third for directing Saving Private Ryan. He has also been honoured with Oscar nominations as director for E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Among his achievements, he has won three Directors Guild of America Awards for Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and The Color Purple, as well as nominations for Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Empire of the Sun and Amistad for a record nine nominations.

The director is the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Directors Guild of America and the American Film Institute and the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His films have also been among the industry's all-time most successful motion pictures worldwide, including E.T., Jurassic Park, Jaws and the three Indiana Jones films.