Kubrick’s family even received death threats.
The ban, which drove the movie underground, remained in place for 27 years – even causing the closure of London’s famous Scala cinema when the staff screened the film illegally; the venue subsequently became mired in a legal battle with the film’s studio backers, Warner Bros.
The film was only re-released in the UK after Kubrick’s death in 1999.
Nicole Kidman had her back: Expats director Lulu Wang on Hong Kong-set show
Nicole Kidman had her back: Expats director Lulu Wang on Hong Kong-set show
2 The Kite Runner (2007)
Directed by Marc Forster, the movie adaptation of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel was largely shot in China’s Xinjiang region, which doubled for Kabul. Despite some segments being filmed in Afghanistan, the nation’s government clamped down on it.
In the story, the main character Amir witnesses the rape of his ethnic Hazara friend by an ethnic Pashtun.
“It showed the ethnic groups of Afghanistan in a bad light,” claimed Din Mohammad Rashed Mubarez, the deputy minister in the country’s Ministry of Information and Culture. “If this film is shown in the cinemas, it is humiliating for one of our ethnic groups.”
3 To Singapore, with Love (2013)
Made by Tan Pin Pin, this controversial documentary set about interviewing nine Singaporean political dissidents, former activists, and student leaders, all of whom had fled Singapore between the 1960s and 1980s.
But a year after it was made, the film was banned in its native country, with the Media Development Authority claiming that it undermined national security as “the individuals in the film have given distorted and untruthful accounts of how they came to leave Singapore and remain outside Singapore” and that “a number of these self-professed ‘exiles’ were members of, or had provided support to, the proscribed Communist Party of Malaya”.
4 The Circle (2000)
But in Iran, the film was soon banned by the Ministry of Culture and Guidance, with the country’s deputy minister of culture and Islamic guidance for cinematic affairs Mohammad-Hassan Pezeshk arguing that the film had “a completely dark and humiliating perspective”.
It was the start of many years of troubles for Panahi, who was later arrested in 2010 and banned from writing or directing films, giving interviews, or leaving Iran, for 20 years.
5 To Live (1994)
Despite being regarded as one of Zhang’s finest films, its critical look at the way the protagonists’ fates were negatively influenced by the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution caused issues.
The Chinese government – already on high alert after Farewell, My Concubine – saw to it that the film was officially banned. That said, it became available on pirated DVD and even some cinemas screened it illegally.
6 Revolution of Our Times (2021)
What protest film Revolution of Our Times does and doesn’t show
What protest film Revolution of Our Times does and doesn’t show
Expat communities in Australia, for example, set up viewings in several cities, while in the UK, when tickets went on sale for the film, screening as part of the inaugural Hong Kong Film Festival, the website crashed.
7 The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
This black comedy by director Miloš Forman, a key film of the Czech New Wave, detailed the farcical fallout from a party organised by some small-town firefighters to honour their chairman.
Seen in some quarters as an allegory for Communism’s failings, it’s not hard to see why the film – after a brief initial release – was “banned forever” in Czechoslovakia and Forman was forced to leave the country for the United States.
Fortunately for him, his career blossomed, as the director would go on to make the Oscar-winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
8 In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
Hugely controversial, Nagisa Oshima’s tale of erotic obsession and the blurred lines between sex and violence was shot in Japan, although the director bypassed the country’s strict censorship laws by listing the film as a French production.
The sex acts depicted, which were not simulated, were blurred out on screen at the Japanese premiere, but the film was later banned in Japan, and charges of obscenity and disturbance of society were brought against Oshima by the Japanese government.
The director defended himself by saying: “Nothing that is expressed is obscene; what is obscene is what is hidden.” Even now the full, uncut version of the film remains unavailable in Japan.
9 Andrei Rublev (1966)
Andrei Tarkovsky’s second film, loosely based on the life and art of a 15th century monk and icon painter, was not released domestically in the Soviet Union when it first appeared, except for a single screening at the Dom Kino in Moscow in 1966.
After it was pulled from screening by the censors, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stated that “the film’s ideological erroneousness is not open to doubt”. Although it earned a showing at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969, Soviet authorities only allowed it to be screened out of competition and at 4am.
Eventually, after pressure from leading cultural figures, the film was released in 1971 in the Soviet Union.
10 Cyclo (1995)
Another winner of Venice’s prestigious Golden Lion, Tran Anh Hung’s Cyclo dipped into the underbelly of life in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with its story of a bicycle-taxi driver (played by Hong Kong’s Tony Leung Chiu-wai) forced into a life of crime after his vehicle is stolen.
Curiously, the film was shot with the permission of the censorship board. “I told the board I didn’t mean to insult anything or anybody,” said Hung.
But after its Venice triumph, the Vietnamese authorities prevented it being shown in the country, claiming – according to The New York Times – that “it is not a true picture of life in Vietnam”.
