Lebanese censors draw criticism from artists

Beirut: It features a homeless teenager, a prostitute and a homosexual as the main protagonists and has all the makings of a movie that will stir emotions among Arab audiences.

But it never got the chance: Government censors banned the Lebanese film Help as too smutty just days before its scheduled opening in mid-February.

Since the ban, critics and intellectuals have demanded that decades-old censorship laws be scrapped in a country where the younger lot openly pursue Western lifestyles.

In Lebanon, a censoring body of security officers influenced by the Muslim and Christian clergies continues to review all plays and films before they are shown, cutting all scenes that might "offend public morals".

"I didn't want to make an aesthetic postcard movie about Lebanon," said Marc Abi Rashid, the 33-year-old director. "Do they really think we live in a platonic society? My ideas are all inspired from Lebanon. They want to give a false, impeccable image of Lebanon."

The film tells the story of Ali, a homeless adolescent who sleeps in an abandoned van. His life is turned upside down when he meets Soraya, a call girl who shares an apartment with Janot, a young homosexual, and is hiding from Jacques, a Lebanese mobster who is trying to kill her.

The movie received all the required permits for its shooting and public screening after the filmmakers agreed to blur a particularly graphic scene and restrict the movie to viewers 18 and older. But just before its premiere, censors decided to revoke its licence without explanation.

"Decisions to ban movies are often made randomly according to moral, religious or political standards," said Carmen Abu Jaoude, assistant director at the Beirut-based Skeyes, the Centre for Defending Media and Cultural Freedoms.

The last suggestion made by the film's team was to raise the viewers' age to 21 without compromising on a controversial sex scene.