Hariri saves Spielberg film after close encounter with censorship committee
Director’s links with Israel believed to be behind initial decision to ban ‘The Post’
Steven Spielberg’s latest film
The Post will be shown in Lebanon this week after prime minister Saad Hariri was said to have intervened to overrule a prospective ban.
Mr Hariri asked the interior ministry to ignore the recommendation from the general security directorate’s censorship committee to ban the film, according to Italia Film, the movie’s Beirut-based Middle East distributor. The Post will now be released today.
The film was threatened with a ban because of Spielberg’s links to Israel, a country with which Lebanon is officially at war. It is believed the censorship committee objected to The Post because parts of another Spielberg blockbuster, the 1993 Oscar-winning Schindler’s List, were shot in Jerusalem. Spielberg is reportedly also on an Arab League blacklist after the director personally gave a US$1 million (Dh3.67m) donation to Israeli relief efforts after the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbollah, a group which has seats in the Lebanese parliament.
Italia Film’s marketing man “Unfortunately ager, Carlo Vincenti, told The
National Mr Hariri intervened after growing pressure on social media.
“This is a big victory as it is the first time in Lebanon that a ban on a movie is reversed,” Mr Vincenti said.
A spokesman for the ministry of interior said the minister was in Cairo and would make a final decision about whether to allow the film to be shown upon his return yesterday evening.
A Lebanese government source confirmed that Mr Hariri is opposed in principle to the banning of films. Last year, DC superhero film
Wonder Woman was banned in the country – much to the chagrin of Lebanese film fans – because the star, Gal Gadot, had served in the Israeli Defence Forces.
Jungle, starring Daniel Radcliffe, was banned two weeks after its release last year because of the social-media buzz surrounding the survival thriller, which features an Israeli protagonist.
Even Lebanese directors have fallen foul of the country’s strict anti-Israeli regulations. Director Ziad Doueiri, who is in the running for an Oscar for his latest film The Insult, was detained on a recent trip back to his homeland because parts of his 2012 film
The Attack had been filmed in Israel, in contravention of Lebanon’s strict laws regarding its neighbour.