Culture

‘Call Me By Your Name’ banned by Beijing film festival

Mar 28 2018
Written by Jasmine Andersson

(Call Me By Your Name)

The Beijing International Film Festival announced it would be pulling Academy Award winning gay romance Call Me By Your Name from its program, the movie’s distributor said on Monday without providing explanation.

The film, which was scheduled to be screened at the Beijing International Film Festival, was removed from the listings without an explanation, reports NotNowNext.

“There is no clear policy on this issue, so we are always confused,” Xin Ying, director of the Beijing LGBT Center said.

Although it is legal to be LGBT in China, any media of “abnormal sexual behaviours”, which also includes gratuitous displays of sex, have been banned.

However, Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court agreed to review the ban, which came into action in July 2017, which is symbolic of the fractured relationship the Chinese Communist regime has with LGBT relationships and rights.

The Communist Party’s propaganda department took control over film, news and publishing earlier on this month.

Fans have expressed their outrage at the decision, and have reminded the government that “it is 2018”.

Others have remarked that no film that has ever had an openly gay protagonist has been screened in China.

It is believed that it was under their jurisdiction that the film was not showcased.

Last month, Tunisia’s ministry of culture banned the film for what it perceived to be its controversial subject matter.

For those not in the know, Call Me By Your Name follows the budding romance between a 17-year-old Jewish-Italian boy and an archeology student in his mid-twenties.

“This is a story that presents love, sexuality, identification and orientation in a definitionless way,” said Timothee Chalamet in an interview with The Sunday Times.
“That’s one of the beautiful things about the movie. Ultimately, Luca [Guadagnino] is the best person to talk to, because this is his film and he does what he wants.”