Ziad Doueiri Says Arab League Trying to Ban His Film
Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri whose award-winning film "The Attack" has been banned in Lebanon said on Friday that the Arab League has asked its member states to take steps to prevent the film being shown.
"The Arab League has asked Arab governments, Lebanon included, to withdraw the permit to distribute the film," he told Agence France Presse in Paris.
"The reason they gave was very simple: they don't want the film to come out, quite simply because Doueiri, Lebanese citizen, has set foot in Israel."
"The Attack" was adapted from a novel by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra and portrays the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of an Israeli doctor who discovers that his wife carried out a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
Doueiri described the Arab League's initiative as "appalling" and said he would be returning to Lebanon in June to fight it because "this film should be seen by Arabs."
"They have not seen the film. For them it is enough to set foot in Israel and return. For them it's enough to film in Israel for that to be considered high treason."
By going to Israel, the filmmaker, who also has a U.S. passport, acknowledged that he had broken a Lebanese law dating from 1955 preventing Lebanese citizens from traveling there.
The film has already been well received at a number of festivals including ones in Morocco and Dubai.
In April it received three awards at the COLCOA french film festival in Hollywood -- the audience award, the "Coming Soon" award and a special jury prize.
The film is due for release later in May in France and in June in the United States.
Doueiri also won awards for his film "West Beirut".
He will see Yamina Benguigui, France's minister for French-speaking countries, on May 22 to press his case.
"Lebanon wants to show to the world that it is a democratic society, that it respects freedom of expression... but in fact (the decision of the authorities) contradicts its actions," he said.
The 49-year-old filmmaker in April quoted the Lebanese interior ministry as saying it had taken action because he had spent time in Israel filming.
Doueiri said at the time that the interior ministry had said censorship was enforced in Lebanon if an artist's work was considered to incite confessional dissent, attack morals or the authority of the state or reflect Israeli propaganda.
11 May 2013, 03:07
00
Stop barking and whining ziad, your pathetic. You have had your 15 minutes of fame, now step away. Your movie is boring and pathetic, the story has already been told and the film is a pathetic attempt to copy paradise now. You are not talented so khalas go away instead of trying to play a victim seeking sympathy from everyone at the cost of lebanon. Your so low. We dont want you so you go tell the world how bad we are... you truly have no shame in you. And cut your hair, you look like a mentally ill person, the artist look doesnt suit you and it shows that your only trying to look like something your not.
11 May 2013, 07:54
00
Yep, sounds like he's a publicity hound. Maybe he is Flamethrowers bf.
11 May 2013, 09:41
00
It does not matter what we think of the film or the director. It is actually rather scary when the Arab League turns itself into a cultural censor. For what ever reason, this is creating a precedent that threatens to worsen the situation of cultural producers. The Arabs just get worse by the day when it comes to democracy. Now they will organize their efforts are regional totalitarianism! Disgusting!
13 May 2013, 13:27
00
Amir, aside from your point of view, "you are" = "you're" and not "your" you pathetic blogger. you wrote it 10 times in one paragraph
