EUFF 2023: A Viper's Pit

Malta/Cyprus | Martin Bonnici | 2021 | 115 min

In Maltese and English with English subtitles

Political intrigue and family reckoning collide in this taut drama-thriller adapted from Maltese author Alex Vella Gera’s prize-winning novel. Set across two time periods, the film concerns a (fictional) 1984 assassination attempt on the prime minister of Malta by a family man enlisted into a fundamentalist group, and the life of his now adult son Noel, in 2012, still haunted by the spectre of his vanished father. When Noel returns to Malta for his mother’s funeral, a former associate of his father, who holds answers to unresolved questions, starts Noel down the same treacherous path that corrupted his old man. Bonnici’s engrossing picture, “Malta’s first political thriller” (Times of Malta), was financed by the National Book Council of Malta through an initiative to promote Maltese literature on film.

“Poignant … [A Viper’s Pit] is the new standard for Maltese film productions.”

Lara Zammit, Times of Malta