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Banned Films in Lebanon


Beirut Hotel


 

Faith in censorship...

Lebanon bans the horror movie, The Nun


Link Here18th September 2018
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
The Nun is a 2018 USA horror mystery thriller by Corin Hardy.
Starring Taissa Farmiga, Bonnie Aarons and Charlotte Hope. BBFC link IMDb

Summary Notes

When a young nun at a cloistered abbey in Romania takes her own life, a priest with a haunted past and a novitiate on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate. Together they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of the same demonic nun that first terrorized audiences in 'The Conjuring 2,' as the abbey becomes a horrific battleground between the living and the damned.

Lebanon's film censors have banned the new horror movie, The Nun, from a cinema release. The censors claimed that the film was offensive to the Christian faith.

The Warner Bros production was awaiting a screening licence from the General Security's censorship committee ahead of an expected release on 6 September. However last Wednesday, the Catholic committee watched the movie and asked the General Security to ban it in Lebanon for religious reasons.

It is unclear which scenes caused 'the offence', but some believe the ban may stem from the victimisation of nuns in the film.

According to the constitution, multi-religious Lebanon can impose censorship on local and international productions for a number of reasons. These include banning films for stirring religious and political sensitivities as well as those with sexually explicit content.

 

 

Offsite Article: Ban it, bin it, close it: Lebanon and the growing climate of censorship...


Link Here11th February 2018
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
Background to the Lebanese political censorship of films with a connection to Israel

See article from thearabweekly.com

 

 

Updated: The distributors go postal...

Steven Spielberg's The Post is unbanned in Lebanon after government minister overrules censors


Link Here 23rd January 2018
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
The Post is a 2017 USA historical biography by Steven Spielberg.
Starring Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Sarah Paulson. IMDb

A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country's first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between journalist and government. Inspired by true events.

Lebanon has banned Steven Spielberg's newspaper drama The Post a few days before the film is set to premiere in Beirut.

A source involved with The Post's international distribution says the movie was presented to the Lebanese censorship board, which banned it, citing Israel connections that includs Spielberg filming some scenes for Schindler's List in Jerusalem.

The matter has been transferred to Lebanon's Minister of Interior and Municipalities, who could overturn the decision.

A spokesperson for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment says he cannot comment because the company has not been told officially by the Lebanese distributor that the pic will not be released there because of censorship.

Update: Unbanned

23rd January 2018. See  article from mediafiledc.com

According to Reuters, Interior Minister Nohad Mashnouk has decided to overturn the ban on The Post. Mashnouk saw no obstacle preventing the film from being shown because it has nothing to do with Lebanon or the conflict with the Israeli enemy.

 

 

Update: Possessed by censors...

Annabelle 2 is banned in Lebanon over claims that it is offensive to the christian faith


Link Here23rd August 2017
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
Annabelle 2 is a 2017 USA horror mystery thriller by David F Sandberg.
Starring Miranda Otto, Philippa Coulthard and Stephanie Sigman. IMDb

Several years after the tragic death of their little girl, a dollmaker and his wife welcome a nun and several girls from a shuttered orphanage into their home, soon becoming the target of the dollmaker's possessed creation, Annabelle.

The new horror film Annabelle 2: Creation was scheduled to debut in Lebanon this past weekend but authorities decided to pull the film from theaters because clergy found it offensive to the Christian faith.

According to Lebanese daily Annahar, movie theaters throughout the country were asked to hold off on running the film for further deliberation because Christian leaders took issue with some of its scenes. Cinemacity, however, confirmer that the film was definitely blocked and will in fact not be screened in the country at all.

The movie was reportedly screened for the General Security's Censorship Bureau earlier in the month and then was passed on to the censorship committee. Annahar reported that Catholic Priests Fr. Abdu Abu Kasm and Fr. Athanasius Shahwan were both present at the censorship committee's screening. Father Shahwan had the final word and he demanded that the film be blocked over scenes that are considered offensive to Christian faith.

The specific scenes in question were not mentioned but many believe the objection comes from the fact that nuns are the ones being victimized in the movie's plot.

 

 

Update: Censorship Buzz...

Gay film WASP banned from the Beirut International Film Festival


Link Here12th October 2015
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel
Wasp is a 2015 UK / France / Switzerland / Lebanon drama by Philippe Audi-Dor.
Starring Hugo Bolton, Elly Condron and Simon Haycock. Youtube linkBBFC link IMDb

British film WASP was about to play at the Beirut International Film Festival, when it was banned by the Lebanese Censorship Bureau. Director Philippe Audi-Dor commented:

I am very disappointed that Wasp won't be screening at the renowned Beirut International Film Festival because of its LGBT content. That said, I do understand that the film touches upon a delicate subject, and do respect the censorship bureau's decision. I do think however that the cancelling of the movie emphasizes just how relevant a film like Wasp is in today's world.

LGBT films have been shown at the Beirut International Film Festival before without issue.

BBFC Insight about the sex content

Passed 15 uncut for strong language, sex, sex references

A couple are seen having rear entry sex, with close up shots of flesh and facial expressions. There are also strong sex references, with dialogue relating to role-play sex and several frank conversations about sexuality and infidelity.

There is brief natural breast nudity as a woman changes her clothes in the company of another character.

Promotional Material

Having left England for a romantic escapade in the south of France, Olivier and James invite Caroline along at the very last minute. She was just left by her long-time boyfriend and is in need of a change of scenery. The trio arrives in a little Provencal village, somewhat cut off from the world. Though everything seems calm between the pool, sunshine and a village visit, Olivier finds himself more and more intrigued by Caroline. A tension of sexual jealousy and possessiveness will escalade between the three.

 

 

Lebanon Recommends...

The Attack, a film by Ziad Doueiri, banned for using Israeli actors


Link Here29th April 2013
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel

The Attack is a 2012 Lebanon/France/Qatar/Belgium drama by Ziad Doueiri.
With Ali Suliman, Evgenia Dodena, Reymond Amsalem. YouTube icon IMDb

Lebanese censors have banned the award-winning movie The Attack from being shown in the country because its Lebanese director shot part of the movie in Israel and used Israeli actors.

Director Ziad Doueiri explained the ban on his Facebook page:

I regret to inform you that the interior minister of Lebanon, Minister Charbel, has decided to punish us and the film by banning it. The reason for the rejection is that I, Ziad Doueiri, had spent time in Israel filming.

The Ministry [of Culture said it had nothing against the film, but that it wasn't 'Lebanese enough.' They also said they could not have a film with Israeli actors represent Lebanon at the Oscars. I knew from the start it was a lost cause.

All this does in the end is portray Lebanon in a negative light, and tell us, filmmakers, that we if think outside of the box, we 'll be considered pariahs and outlaws.

The film is about an Arab surgeon in a Tel Aviv hospital who finds out that his wife died in a suicide bombing. The film won the Special Jury Award at the 2012 San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain and the Golden Star at Morocco's Marrakesh Film Festival.

 

 

Update: Beirut Hotel...

Banned in Lebanon for its political subplot about assassinated PM


Link Here30th August 2012
Full story: Banned Films in Lebanon...Beirut Hotel

In Beirut Hotel , Zoha, a Lebanese nightclub singer, and Mathieu, a Frenchman on a business trip who may or may not be a spy, repeatedly get together in Mathieu's hotel room in Beirut and have raunchy sex. The film, the third feature by the Lebanese director Danielle Arbid, was banned in her home country.

The reason: not so much the erotic scenes as one the film's subplots, which concerns the 2005 assassination of the former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, which is an explosive topic in the country. The censors claimed that the film's depiction of the political situation would endanger Lebanon's security.

The Lebanese have only been able to watch the film by satellite (it aired on the cable channel Arte; some one million viewers tuned in), but it's been making the festival rounds around the world.

Beirut Hotel presents a cosmopolitan yet hostile country where citizens and visitors alike are constantly watched and monitored, where news of kidnappings rule the airways, and people are silenced (read: murdered) for political reasons.

Danielle Arbid has had to battle the Lebanese censors for all three of her feature films. According to the New York Times, following the decree that banned Beirut Hotel, the filmmaker moved to France in disgust.




 

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