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Movie 'The Kingdom' banned in two Gulf states |
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Written by News Editor
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Saturday, 13 October 2007 |
Lebanon news, Lebanese radio
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Two Gulf states have banned a controversial U.S. movie revolving around a1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, officials on Thursday branded the movie "a false depiction of the facts"
"The Kingdom," directed by Peter Berg, was banned in Kuwait and Bahrain, but is showing in the United Arab Emirates and will be screened in Qatar starting on Saturday.
"The screening of the film has been banned in Kuwait for many reasons, chiefly because it is a false depiction of facts," a source at the cinema committee of Kuwait's information ministry told AFP.
The ban was confirmed by the public relations manager of the Kuwaiti firm that runs cinemas and distributes movies in Kuwait.
The head of publications at Bahrain's information ministry, Jamal Daoud, said, without elaborating, the film had been banned there "on orders from high up in the ministry."
Middle East English daily, Arab News, highlighted the negative effects of such a move calling it "counterproductive"
The newspaper quoted a Saudi businessman, who worked as a consultant with Berg, as saying “I think this is a problem — to ban a movie that shows how the West thinks about us…we should know how other people think of us Saudis, and the movie shows that the West and Saudi Arabia stand together against terrorism," Ahmed Al-Ibrahim told Arab News.
The daily emphasized the mixed views and reported on a Kuwaiti blogger that said the movie "depicts the Americans as the heroes that come in and rescue the bungling Saudis" and added the blogger said she is not surprised the movie was banned.
ööArab News reported that Al-Ibrahim said while he was on set he tried to make a difference and change many of the negative Saudi images which he insists were "far worse in the original script."
"The Kingdom" belongs to a new wave of Hollywood movies that are using the uncertainties and confusion of the post 9/11 World Trade Centre attack as their backdrop.
But Berg said last month that while politics and religion play a significant part in his latest film, the primary objective is to entertain.
Starring Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper, "The Kingdom" follows a team of FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to probe the circumstances of a bomb attack targeting American citizens.
The film studies the complexities facing investigators from two alien cultures attempting to work together for a common cause, and was born from Berg's knowledge of the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, a truck bombing on a U.S. Air Force apartment complex in al-Khobar that killed 19 U.S. citizens and wounded 371.
Although the film's desert sequences were all shot in the U.S. southwestern state of Arizona, Berg visited Saudi Arabia in the course of his research.
Cinemas in the neighboring UAE started screening the film this week, and the director of the Qatari Cinema Company, Abdurrahman Mohsen, said "the Kingdom" will be shown at 26 cinemas in Qatar.
Although there are no public cinemas in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom is yet to announce a ban on the movie. |
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