A UK film channel has canceled all screenings of a “blasphemous” film about the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad after Muslim activists pricked branches.
Cineworld said it made the decision to cancel all screenings of The Lady of Heaven to “ensure the safety of our staff and customers.”
The cancellation was criticized by a fellow House of Lords for being “disastrous for the arts, dangerous for free speech.”
The film’s producer defended the rights of protesters to express their displeasure, but said it was “stupid” and against British values for the film to be completely withdrawn.
A video circulating online showed the manager of Sheffield Cineworld telling protesters that the screening on Sunday night had been canceled, with cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
Pillars, a Muslim news site, tweeted a photo on Sunday of what it said were “200 Muslims protesting the sectarian hatred film Lady of Heaven outside Cineworld on Broad Street, Birmingham.”
Lady of Heaven, released last Friday in the UK, claims to be the first film to feature the “face” of the Prophet Muhammad.
But, as The Guardian’s two-star review points out, “No single actor is credited with playing him or any of the other sacred figures around him. their faces, often shown in flashing sunshine, are computer-generated, presumably enough to appease Islam’s ban on the visual depiction of the prophet, but this is a Shiite-lined film that is obviously a little more lenient with the subject. “
A screening in Bolton was canceled after 100 protesters showed up at the local Cineworld branch. The president of the Bolton Mosque Council had called for the screening to be canceled, saying the film was “based on a sectarian ideology and is blasphemous in nature to the Muslim community.”
More than 117,000 people have signed a petition to try to get the film out of all cinemas in the UK.
A Cineworld spokesman said: “Due to recent incidents related to the screenings of The Lady of Heaven, we have made the decision to cancel upcoming film screenings nationwide to ensure the safety of our staff. and customers “.
Cineworld was to screen the film in Bradford, Birmingham, Bolton, London (Ilford and O2 Greenwich), Glasgow Silverburn, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Wolverhampton.
Vue, a rival film chain, still had screenings in London and the South East on Tuesday. Vue did not respond to claims that it had withdrawn the film from selected cinemas, but a spokesman said: “Vue takes seriously the responsibilities of providing a platform for a wide variety of content and believes in showing films. of interest to various communities in the UK.
“Vue will only show a film once the BBFC (British Independent Film Classification Board) has rated and rated a film. The Lady of Heaven has been accredited by BBFC and is shown in some of our cinemas.
“Decisions about how long a film stays in projection are made place by place and based on various commercial and operational factors.”
The 5Pillars review of the film was titled, “Lady of Heaven: Pure, Unadulterated Sectarian Dirt.”
His critic complained that the film compared three of the Prophet’s closest companions to Isis.
Claire Fox, who sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Fox of Buckley, tweeted that the decision to cancel the screening showed that “the extra-parliamentary blasphemy law” censored the film.
She wrote: “The ‘I find this offensive’ itself cancels out the cultural arguments that are now being used beyond campus activism. Disastrous for the arts, dangerous for free speech, a lesson for to those who argue that identity politics is not a threat to democracy. “
Malik Shlibak, executive producer of the film, told Guardian cinemas that they should “stand up and defend their right to show films that people want to see.”
“I think the cinemas are sinking under pressure and making these decisions to stifle the noise,” he said, adding that the producer had received dozens of messages from people trying to book tickets to see the film but they could not.
“This is an artistic endeavor that speaks and elaborates on history and religion, which always has a lot of different interpretations and interpretations. This is normal and healthy. We welcome that and welcome people to speak out, for or against the film, “he said.
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“What we don’t support and what we vehemently oppose is what they are trying to do, which is to censor others and dictate what we can and cannot see in UK cinemas.
“It simply came to our notice then. The general public must be aware of this and confront it, because it is violating and endangering their freedom of expression. “
Film censorship
Freaks
In 1932, the director of Dracula, Tod Browning, made a film, then shocking, set in a traveling circus, with disabled actors in key roles. While the film premiered in the US in a truncated form at a poor box office, in the UK it was denied a certificate by the BBFC (then called the British Board of Film Censors) and in fact banned it. It was “rediscovered” and screened at the Venice Film Festival in 1962, and the BBFC awarded it a certificate the following year.
A mechanical orange
Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel premiered uncut in the UK in 1971, but after sensational news linked the film to murder cases, several councils refused permission to cinemas to show it. In 1973, Kubrick asked Warner Bros., the film’s distributors, to permanently remove the film from the United Kingdom, and it was not legally shown until after Kubrick’s death in 1999.
Salon or 120 days of Sodom
The latest film by Italian author Pier Paolo Pasolini, an adaptation of the Marquis de Sade, set during the last days of Mussolini’s fascist regime, was to be released in 1975, but was denied a certified for “great indecency.” Legal regulations allowed a cropped version of the film to be screened in member clubs from 1977, although the first cinema to show it, in Soho, London, was quickly raided by police. Finally, the BBFC (renamed the British Board of Film Classification in 1984) awarded it an 18 certificate in 2000.
Brian’s life
Arguably the UK’s most notorious censorship dispute surrounded Monty Python’s team’s satire on Christianity, which was published in 1979 with an AA certificate (equivalent to a 15). Religious activists (led by Mary Whitehouse’s Festival of Light) accused the film of blasphemy, prompting a heated televised discussion between the Python team and opponents of the film. Several town halls raised the rating to X, and a handful completely banned the film.
The piercing killer
The panic of the “nasty video” of the early 80’s caused the processing of a series of horror movies, especially after they could be seen available on VHS. Abel Ferrara wrote and directed this graphic slasher film, which premiered on video in 1982 and became one of the 35 banned films by the director of the prosecution once the Law on Public Prosecutions was passed. video recordings in 1984. He got a legal video release. in 1999.
Crack
David Cronenberg’s 1996 adaptation of JG Ballard’s novel (focusing on the erotic appeal of car accidents) was the subject of a pre-release campaign to ban it by several sensationalist newspapers, but the BBFC approved it uncut with a certificate 18. However, Westminster council denied permission, meaning most West End cinemas were unable to show it. However, the council of his neighboring London district, Camden, did not follow his example, and allowed many places to project it.