St James Cavalier in Valletta will be screening A Gentleman from Malta tomorrow at 7pm, as part of the World Book Day events.

This is a 50-minute documentary produced in 1997 on a shoe-string budget of Lm500 and which garnered the MBA Best Documentary Award of 1998.

The documentary takes a deep look into the personal life and works of the late Francis Ebejer, Maltese playwright and novelist of international acclaim.

In 1996, rare and exclusive footage of Ebejer was discovered in Vienna. The tapes, containing unused scenes, had been relegated to the basement of a producer’s weekend log-house in the outskirts of the city. The recordings, filmed shortly before his death, showed Ebejer playing himself in a rare attempt to reveal his private life. It was the discovery of this footage that led to the creation of this documentary.

In his career, Ebejer wrote more than 50 plays for theatre and television, and his novels have been translated into nine languages, including Japanese. He received many awards, both locally and abroad, among them France’s Medaille d’Honneur de la Ville d’Avignon.

Ebejer explored novel means of expression in dramatic literature. In his works one can trace a fascinating and intriguing development which is to this day debated in various universities across Europe. Critics have described Ebejer as a man ahead of his time.

Despite his achievements, Ebejer never postured as the international figure he was, though this lack of self-confidence was thought to actually spur his success. He was known to be an unhappy man with a complex and reserved personality, and his life was marred by tragedy that included the break-up of his marriage and tragic deaths in his family. Like many writers, Ebejer used these downfalls as a form of inspiration for his work, but he was to remain an extremely private and introverted character.

The documentary attempts to shed some light on who Francis Ebejer was – a playwright, a novelist and also a person who had to deal with downfalls of life.