Uganda bans Dutch film from festival for homosexual and sexual contents
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Ban
Kampala, May 16, 2017 (dpa/NAN) Uganda has banned a Dutch movie from being screened at an ongoing film festival because of its homosexual and sexual content.
“The Dinner Club” was removed from the programme of the European Film Festival in Kampala because it did not “promote proper family values,” Pius Mwinangisa, of the government’s Uganda Media Council.
The Dutch embassy in Uganda posted a document from the council on Facebook that outlined the reasons the film had been withdrawn.
“The film depicts and glorifies homosexuality which is a criminal offence in Uganda.
“The film is replete with various scenes of imitable behaviour,” including “steamy sex scenes” and “smoking especially by women,” the council said.
The Dutch embassy said that it “deplores the decision of the Uganda Media Council and it will withdraw from participation in the European Film Festival in Uganda.”
Mwinangisa pointed out those EU countries had submitted nearly 60 movies for the festival and only one had been flagged.
“The Dutch embassy, rather than issuing statements, should “tell us why the movie should be allowed back,’’ he said.
However, gay men in Uganda complain of frequent harassment by police.
A court had struck down a law foreseeing long prison sentences for active homosexuals in 2014. (dpa/NAN)
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Damilola-Celine Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf