Beirut Hotel – A New Lebanese Movie Is Banned For Sexual Content

For my review of the movie, click here.

Seems like our story with censorship in Lebanon is far from being over or at least moderated somehow. Beirut Hotel, a new Lebanese feature film by director Danielle Arbid, which was scheduled for release in January 2012, has now been banned from being shown in Lebanon. Why?

Well, according the Censorship Committee in Lebanon’s General Security, the movie would “endanger Lebanon’s security.” And you know why? Because the movie apparently has sexual themes to it.

After all what can you expect from a committee that removed a scene featuring the burning of a Syrian flag from the movie Rue Huvelin or even modified a scene in Nadine Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now, although she wasn’t that displeased by that according to her interview with Kalem El Nes. They also banned the Iranian movie Green Days from being screened mostly because it was also banned in Iran for its anti-Islamic revolution sentiment. And lastly, Steven Spielberg’s name was hidden off TinTin’s movie poster because he’s a known Israel sympathiser.

Moreover, Darine Hamze, the leading actress in the movie, has a role as a devout religious person in a current TV series airing on a Lebanese TV station. Interviewers had asked her how she could possibly play both roles. It looks like the concept of acting has eluded them.

Watch the movie’s trailer here:

And in case our folks at the General Security don’t budge, we’ll have to hunt down the DVD for this.

I don’t know about you but I’m seriously sick of a committee deciding what I’m supposed to watch or in this case not watch. This is the 21st century. Such committees should not exist.

And just as a heads up for this committee, I personally hadn’t heard of this movie before today. So thank you for exposing it. Moreover, we, as Lebanese, didn’t invent sex. And if sex is now a danger to our security, then just ban it for everyone.

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19 thoughts on “Beirut Hotel – A New Lebanese Movie Is Banned For Sexual Content”

  2. A MESSAGE FROM THE CENSORSHIP COMMITTEE IN LEBANON’S GENERAL SECURITY

    Dear Citizens,

    In light of the recent outrage that has resulted due to the banning of the movie “Beirut Hotel”, the censorship committee wishes to clarify the following:

    The movie was reviewed by our committee thoroughly and has been deemed as a danger to our national security because it contains sex scenes. This is not an arbitrary decision and it has been based on proper research and investigation.

    Our esteemed members of the committee have reviewed the movie thoroughly and sometimes went through the sex scenes again and again so as to make sure that the decision is well taken. The chairman of the committee said in a recent interview that he “worked late hours during the night” going through the sex parts just to make sure that the decision taken by the members is justified”. “I don’t know why the people are making such a big fuss about it”, said the chairman of the committee, “sex is evil and everyone should know that. Talking or thinking about it will immediately cause law abiding citizens to become decadent. I make sure myself that every pornographic movie is watched thoroughly by me before being banned as a national threat. That is how committed we are to the public.”

    The chairman continued by saying “haven’t we learned anything from the recent fall of the Roman Empire? Haven’t we learned anything from the recent Black Death in Europe? Our wives and daughters are losing their virginity every day when they drive, and this is not me saying this, but the latest scientific research, but we chose to let it go.”

    The committee takes pride in its decision and congratulates the Lebanese people for once again for averting this Zionist-American cultural threat. It also advises its citizens to take notice of the parental control restrictions made on the new Muppets movie due to Miss Piggy’s miniskirts and explicit scenes with Kermit.

    Thank you.
    Long live (our) Lebanon.

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  3. yes the Roman Empire fell because people were having sex… that’s right, it’s very true, it’s proven with research yes… (I’m sorry but the true danger to Lebanese security is the ignorance and idiocy of the politicians ruling our country…)

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    • mate, i really hate getting into this argument, but having sex will not lead to demise. the famous orgies of the roman empire had nothing to do with the fall of rome. it is the lunacy of its emperors, the plagues, the revolts and the mercneary armies that labelled the roman army in the last couple of decade. most of the roman army was made of goths and germanic tribes, the same tribes that they were fighting. the vandals, who were barbarians, were most of the army, and it was the vandals themselves that sacked rome.
      aside from that, sex was existing in all empires. the ottoman sultans at the height of their glory had one of the best harems in the world.

      ok, enough with history. everyone has sex, i hope for your sake you too. that does not make people a threat to security.

      and by the way i agree with you about the politicians, so if you did not get the tone of what i wrote above: it was sarcasm.

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  4. (Our esteemed members of the committee have reviewed the movie thoroughly and sometimes went through the sex scenes again and again so as to make sure that the decision is well taken. The chairman of the committee said in a recent interview that he “worked late hours during the night” going through the sex parts just to make sure that the decision taken by the members is justified”. “I don’t know why the people are making such a big fuss about it”, said the chairman of the committee, “sex is evil and everyone should know that. Talking or thinking about it will immediately cause law abiding citizens to become decadent. I make sure myself that every pornographic movie is watched thoroughly by me before being banned as a national threat. That is how committed we are to the public.”)

    i loved this part it seems that the committee enjoyed the movie, watching the sex scene again and again so they could decide, seems that they couldn’t tell if it is sex or something else coz they are not familiar with sex movies or pornography

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    • It really doesnt deserve all the fuss, its a stupid movie i watched it yesterday on a french channel. Actually it doesnt deserve being released in theaters, not for the erotic scenes, i agree people are free and no one should decide wether we should watch it or not, but this movie is meaningless, the story is lame and there’s no logic to it. So its simply FESHIL!

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    • Exactly only the guy saying that sex is evil gets to masturbate to Darine’s tits. I saw the film on ARTE
      is quite hot but not about much.

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  5. Lol… first of all, the movie wasn’t banned because of its sexual content!!! wtf guys! grow up… there are Lebanese movies with way more sexual scenes that are being shown right now in the theaters!

    The movie was banned because it has references about many sensitive issues in the lebanese security system:
    1) references about Hariri
    2) and most importantly they talk about moukhabarat el jeysh and moukhabarat el dawle ( darak ) how they are separate w “kel wa7ad feti7 3a 7sebo”…

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  6. The USA has the MPAA a bunch of rich Republicans from a millionaires “ghetto” determining ratings
    and without their rating or with an NC-17 the multiplexes will not carry your movie.

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  7. Pingback: Beirut Hotel – Movie Review « A Separate State of Mind

  8. The ban has nothing to do with porn contents. It is more related to the plot story which evolves around israel’s spying agents in Lebanon, hence the “it will endanger Lebanon’s security” comment by the Censorship Bureau. Pls do a little research before demeaning your country in public.

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