SALT ON THE WOUND

WARNING: This opinion piece contains material that may offend people who decide what’s offensive. Reader discretion is advised.

By the time you read this President Jacob Zuma may or may not have done the right thing. However, while waiting for his announcement on Wednesday* my attention was drawn to an announcement by the Film and Publications Board (FPB) concerning their re-evaluation of the classification for the film Inxeba: The Wound. The decision, which has changed the film’s original classification from 16 to X18 effectively places the film in the same category as pornography and prohibits it from being screened or distributed outside of places “designated adult premises”.

This outrageous, homophobic, sycophantic and frankly spineless capitulation by the country’s moral police to pressure from traditional groups shows very clearly what the F in FPB actually stands for in the last gasps of the Zuma era.

I’ve seen the film twice and I’ve reviewed it and commended it for its brave and necessary handling of important issues on the shaping and reinforcing of outdated ideas about masculinity, long overdue for discussion and re-evaluation. But by categorising a film which has a few shots of naked men — and not much else nearing anyone who’s ever seen porn’s idea of porn — as porn, the FPB has effectively stopped the film from being the conversation starter it needs to be.

How the FPB can claim to be “maintaining relevance to the values and norms of South African society through scientific research”, when it’s taken such stringent action against a film that is less pornographic than a boys school locker room, is a stain on the independence of our institutions and the commitment of the arts and culture ministry to freedom of expression and diversity of opinions.

Effectively the FPB have censored the film, committing exactly the kind of prejudiced, dark ages, see no evil, hear no evil ignorance perpetrated under the apartheid regime. If they’d changed their classification to 18 then that would be a different story but, pressured by traditional interest groups, the appeals tribunal has shown themselves to have less backbone than an impotent member.

The protests against the film and the relevance of the complaints against it can only be judged by those who have seen it and not by banishing it to the backrooms of adult shops. This is not just about The Wound, it’s about our freedom to make our own decisions about what we see and what we think. If you can’t take that, dear verkrampte fatheads of the FPB ….you can go X18 yourselves because like a certain former head of the ANC, it seems you’re intent on doing exactly that to all the free thinking people of your country.

The FPB has stopped the film from being the conversation starter it needs to be

* When Lifestyle goes to print.

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