Huddled
around a camp fire in the dunes, a group of young Emirati men drink vodka from
plastic cups. Later, in the VIP area of a club, they swig magnums of champagne,
eyeing the Western girls in miniskirts dancing by their table.
This week, these scenes will be on big screens all over Dubai.
They're from City of Life, the nation's first big-budget feature
film, written and directed by Emirati Ali Mostafa.
Ten years ago, no way would I have been able to show that,
Mostafa tells Time Out. I'm surprised I'm able to show it now.
Mostafa defends his depiction of decadent Emiratis by declaring: I
did what I thought was real. He concedes the film could have delved
even further, but reasons: I didn't need to make a film that was so
unnecessarily controversial that no [Emirati] could ever make a film
again. I'm just scratching the surface.
While some locals may take offence at these scenes, the fact that
they've not been cut before the film hits multiplexes shows a marked
change regarding the UAE's censorship of celluloid. Of course, there
remain non-negotiables. A public cinema must not offend the
nation's social and religious values, meaning any sexual or nude scenes
are immediately cast to the cutting room floor. Also up for the chop is
anything that could be offensive to religion (not just Islam) and
anything that criticises the rulers of the UAE and surrounding Arab
nations.
Mohammed Mutawa, a senior staff member in the censorship department
at the National Media Council (NMC), sums up the difficulty of his job
when he tells us that 90% of material – films, music, video games –
is from outside our culture. Inevitably, elements of this imported
material will conflict with the UAE's social values.
Still, the department rarely bans films, with sometimes humorous
results. Morgan Freeman is entirely missing from the UAE version of
Bruce Almighty because censors cut all depictions of God. Contrary
to popular belief, Sex and the City was not banned here. But
because all scenes of a sexual nature were cut, cinemas decided not to
screen it – probably because there were only about 30 minutes of the
film left to screen.
City of Life director Mostafa says he thinks the psychology of
seeing it on the big screen has drawn objections to the more risqu้
parts of his film. True, there seem to be different rules for public and
private viewing here.
Juma Alleem, director of the NMC's censorship department, confirms it
is not illegal to possess an uncensored film on DVD in the UAE because
it is a personal effect. There is no official intervention because it
is for personal use. He also tells us that DVDs for sale in the UAE
aren't as censored as in the cinema because he lacks the technology to
cut them. Therefore, if there are only one or two sexual scenes,
a DVD is released. If there are too many obscene scenes, it is
banned. That's why Watchmen, for example, was near
incomprehensible in the cinema, but it's possible to buy the DVD and see
the film in its entirety – sex scenes and Dr Manhattan's perennially
naked presence included.
