| Carmen | |
| Director: | Valerie Buhagiar |
| Cinematography: | Diego Guijarro |
| Distributor: | Vortex Media |
Carmen is a 2021 drama film written and directed by Valerie Buhagiar.[1] Inspired in part by the real experiences of Buhagiar's own aunt Rita, the film stars Natascha McElhone as Carmen, a Maltese spinster who has spent her adult life serving as a caretaker for her brother, who is a Roman Catholic priest, but who finds herself feeling free to explore her own desires and goals in life as she nears age 50.[1] The cast also includes Steven Love, Michaela Farrugia, Peter Galea, Mikhail Basmadjian, Henry Zammit Cordina, and Richard Clarkin.
Shot in Malta in 2019,[2] the film was screened for distributors in the Industry Selects program at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, but was not made available to the general public.[3] It had its public premiere at the 2021 Whistler Film Festival,[4] where Diego Guijarro won the award for Best Cinematography in a Borsos Competition film.[5] In 2022, it was screened at the Canadian Film Festival in Toronto, where it won the award for Best Film.[6] The film was released by Vortex Media in Canada in select theatres on August 19, 2022, and on video on demand on September 23, 2022.[7] [8] [9] In Malta, it was released theatrically on September 21, 2022.[10] In the United States, it was released theatrically in major cities and on video on demand on September 23, 2022, by Good Deed Entertainment.[9] [11]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of .[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]