Tannoura Maxi ignites furore in Lebanese cultural circles.

Summary: The specter of censorship has again arisen on Lebanon's cinematic landscape, specifically over "Tannoura Maxi" ("Heels of War"), the 2012 feature film debut of writer-director Joe Bou Eid.

BEIRUT: The specter of censorship has again arisen on Lebanon's cinematic landscape, specifically over "Tannoura Maxi" ("Heels of War"), the 2012 feature film debut of writer-director Joe Bou Eid.

The film had its Lebanese theatrical release at the beginning of May, and Lebanon's Catholic Information Council (CCI) this week filed a request with the General Security Directorate for it to expurgate specific scenes from the film, citing complaints the CCI has received in the last few days.

Set in the summer of 1982, the year of the Israeli army's siege of Beirut, "Tannoura Maxi" tells the story of a love affair between a young woman and a novitiate priest on the verge of taking his final vows. In his written plot summary Bou Eid suggests that his film, which had its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2011, is based on the story of his own parents' courtship.

"When the film was presented to us last July, we made several remarks about the temptation scene in a church and a scene with sexual connotations that took place inside a monastery," said CCI director Father Abdo Abou Kassm in an interview in Monday's edition of L'Orient Le Jour newspaper.

"We told the filmmakers that these scenes can be misinterpreted. So we asked the filmmakers and General Security that they be omitted," continued Abou Kassm, who said that he conveyed these requests to Bou Eid and General Security, on June 26 and Aug. 8, 2011, respectively.

Abou Kassm claimed General Security's censorship department had assured him that Bou Eid would remove the offending scenes. As The Daily Star was preparing this story, Bou Eid was outside the country and unavailable for comment.

"The public is outraged," Abou Kassm told L'Orient Le Jour, claiming several people have asked for the film to be pulled from Lebanese theaters.

"Tannoura Maxi" isn't the first Lebanese film to provoke high-level disapproval in the past year.

In late 2011 the producers of Danielle Arbid's 2011 romantic thriller "Beirut Hotel" let it be known that General Security wouldn't allow the film to be screened in Beirut theaters unless references to the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri were removed.

A few weeks ago, producer Ali Abu Zeid complained that the administration of Beirut's ABC Ashrafieh Mall had denied Grand Cinemas permission to screen Jamal Chorjeh's "33 Days," Abu Zeid's Lebanese-Iranian co-production about the July 2006 war.

The CCI's position has provoked some backlash.

"If some find the film offensive, they're not obliged to watch it," said Lea Baroudi, a member of the Facebook group "Stop Cultural Terrorism in Lebanon." "They can criticise it and even incite people not to watch it but they do not have the right to ban it and impose their point of view on others."

An opinion piece published in An-Nahar newspaper Wednesday, attributed to Father Georges Massouh, decried the banning of films (and other forms of cultural production) because they are deemed an attack on Christianity, or any other religion.

"Freedom is becoming narrower in our counties because some institutions and religious movements dominate some societies and now dictate what this society is, and is not, allowed to practice. And it appoints itself guardian of its principles and beliefs ...

"We fear that each sect in our country will have its own religious police, which will observe, accuse and issue judgments according to what it sees to be right and wrong ...

"Lebanese sects are confiscating the Lebanese people's civil rights and holding them hostage but they also want to hold hostage the minds, choices and tastes of the Lebanese people.

"Where is the danger in a film on faith? If somebody changes his faith after seeing such a film, the problem lies in the faith of some, and not the film."

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Publication:	The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon)
Date:	May 17, 2012
Words:	677
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