Lebanon has censored a French film depicting homosexuality
and a local short film about the tradition of temporary marriage among some
Shiite Muslims, film festival organizers said Thursday.
The Beirut International Film Festival said it had been
informed by censors that 'L'inconnu du lac' (Stranger by the Lake), a thriller
by Alain Guiraudie about two men who fall in love after meeting at a cruising
spot for gay men along the shore of a lake.
The other film is "I Offered You Pleasure," by
26-year-old Lebanese director Farah Shaer. It deals with the controversial
subject of temporary marriage, or "pleasure marriage," a tradition
among some Shiites that opponents view as an excuse for sex outside of
conventional wedlock, otherwise forbidden by Islam.
A security official said the censorship board, which is
attached to the interior ministry, had concluded the two films did "not
meet its criteria" and that the minister would make a final decision on
them.
Despite unbridled access to media via the Internet and the
widespread pirating of DVDs, censors in multi-sectarian Lebanon ban all
artistic works they believe incite sectarian strife, undermine morals or state
authority, or which further "Israeli propaganda."
Lebanon also respects a region-wide boycott of the Israeli
arts enforced by the Arab League.
Earlier this year, Beirut censored Lebanese director Ziad
Doueiri's award-winning film "The Attack" because it was partly shot
in Tel Aviv with Israeli actors.