The directors of The Last Queen of Algiers have decided to withdraw their film from a cinema in Montreal, Canada, in solidarity with Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab, whose films on Palestine have been censored by this cinema.
This decision was taken in support of this filmmaker who was the victim of “censorship” by the Parc cinema in the Canadian city where a large Algerian community resides, explained the directors of The Last Queen of Algiers in a press release published on Facebook.
“In solidarity with the films on Palestine by Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab which were censored by the Parc de Montréal cinema, we, directors of the film “The Last Queen”, decide to withdraw our film from the programming of this same cinema », wrote the directors of the successful film directed by Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri.
The directors of The Last Queen of Algiers explain that before making their decision, they contacted the Parc cinema for explanations on the withdrawal of the Lebanese filmmaker’s films.
The directors of The Last Queen of Algiers denounce the censorship of films about Palestine
“The Parc cinema explained to us that a few hours before the screening of Jocelyne Saab’s films, in addition to an online petition against the holding of the event, the cinema had suffered “an attack” receiving several hundred emails and “threats”, in their words, of different natures, about which they cannot speak publicly”, they reported, denouncing practices that were “very worrying, opaque, undemocratic” and “unacceptable.”
The Algerian actress and the French director say they are “shocked by the censorship and arbitrariness which strike Palestinian cinema, while ethnic cleansing is underway in Gaza and the West Bank”.
In addition to the Le Parc cinema in Montreal, films about Palestine are victims of censorship in Europe. Adila Bendimerad and Damien Ounouri cite two cases. The first was in France where the film “Wardi” by Norwegian director Mars Grorud was “withdrawn from school programming by the Paris rectorate. The second was in Germany where the film “Wajib” by Anne-Marie Jacir was “canceled without explanation from a television channel.
