Workers on Valletta’s Grand Harbour fringe were jolted into the past on Wednesday afternoon when hundreds of men dressed in period costume rushed towards Victoria Gate as they yelled and waved Maltese flags. 

The unusual scene was shot as part of a feature film into the 1919 Sette Giugno riots. The film, Just Noise, will star Harvey Keitel and Malcolm McDowell and is being directed by Davide Ferrario. It will be shot in both Maltese and English. 

Footage sent to Times of Malta shows a large group of men storming the capital city’s Ta’ Liesse area, flags in the air and waistcoats firmly buttoned. 

A separate group of seemingly less energetic actors bring up the rear and march forward with intent. 

A boom operator carrying a boom arm walks alongside some of the extras, to capture their cries. 

Filming took place on St Ursula Street and Ta' Liesse Hill.  

The Sette Giugno riots of June 7, 1919 were the culmination of simmering discontent which the Maltese were harbouring towards their British rulers, and which had apexed with the rise in grain prices. 

On that day, British soldiers fired at a rioting crowd in Valletta which had stormed the house of a leading grain importer and the offices of a newspaper, The Daily Malta Chronicle. Three people were killed that day.

A fourth was stabbed the following day and died later.