NewsLab

THE DAILY STAR 18 February 2009

BEIRUT: “Help,” a new Lebanese film that was due to open this week, now hangs in limbo as the license granted to it by the state’s censorship department has been revoked, “not on the basis of anything legal, but on the basis of personal opinion,” according to director Marc Abi-Rached.

Permission to show the film in Lebanon was granted on July 10, 2008 under the license serial number 1460. That license was pulled this past Monday, February 16, just three days before the scheduled opening, and four days after the avant-premiere on February 12, when the film received largely positive reviews from the press.

The license was recalled as a result of a “technical error” that distributed permission to “Help” instead of another film. In order to pass censorship regulations again, the department is requesting that 28 minutes of the 87-minute-long film be cut.

“This is the first time in the history of Lebanese cinema that a license is given and then revoked. They want to cut a quarter of my movie. After that, there will be no movie,” Abi-Rached told The Daily Star.

According to Abi-Rached, the only censorship request made by the Censorship Department prior to releasing the license last summer was that he darken an image to screen the visibility of a vagina during one scene of the film, which he readily complied with. “There is no article I broke, I show what I needed to show. If no law has been broken, where is the right to do this?” he said.

A psychological-social drama, “Help” tells a story of choice and destiny in a Lebanese context, bringing together the lives of a prostitute, a juvenile delinquent, a wealthy businessman, and a cab driver, among others. The film also tackles homosexuality and prostitution by presenting actors in a realistic light intended to reveal the basic humanity behind these issues. The 28 minutes in question largely contain scenes that include swearing and homosexuality.

“This is the first Lebanese film that talks about these subjects,” said actress Joanna Andraos, who plays the role of prostitute Soraya. “Many films talk about politics, war, conflict … but the singularity of this film is that it just tells a story … Unlike ‘Caramel,’ which was sweet, ‘Help’ is raw and violent in speaking about a lot of taboos from the perspective of multiple generations” she added.

Interest has been shown in the film from a representative of Cannes, and the team is working on getting distributors for the United States and France.

“I won’t accept to change even one second of my movie,” Abi-Rached said, adding that “I already had the permission; I did everything by the book. I don’t want to challenge the system, I just want my movie. People have the right to see this film.

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