Andrew Haigh’s film titled Weekend, has been banned from all Catholic Church-owned cinemas throughout Italy, after evaluation from the Churches Film Evaluation Commission.
As a result of the Churches ban, Weekend, which is described as a thoughtful story of two men (that happen to be gay) who meet in a club then spend the whole weekend together, will be limited to only 10 cinemas on its Italian release.
According to the Italian Conference of Bishops’ Film Evaluation Commission Weekend was classified as “not advised, unusable and scabrous (indecent or salacious).”
The Conference of Bishops’ Film Evaluation Commission listed the film’s principal themes as drugs and homosexuality, as opposed to love and identity by film critics.
Speaking with AFP company president Cesare Petrillo says, “I cannot see any other explanation than a problem of homophobia in the Church.”
“They decided it was unacceptable, that it should be censored and they have used their power to paralyze the distribution.”
Petrillo adds, “Normally a film like this would have been picked up by many of these cinemas. Instead, there are whole regions and big cities like Florence, Bergamo, and Padova where we have not been able to get it put on. And the only reason for that is that the main characters are gay.”
The official Italian rating/recommendation for Weekend is R-14, watch the trailer below.
Last Updated on Mar 16, 2016
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