The organizers of an Istanbul film festival announced on Thursday that the event was being canceled in protest against a ban by local authorities on the screening of the film “Queer,” starring Daniel Craig.
The arthouse film streaming platform Mubi stated that the entire four-day festival was being canceled just hours before it was scheduled to open in Kadikoy on the Asian side of Istanbul.
According to Mubi, the Kadikoy district authorities informed them that the screening of “Queer,” the opening film, was banned due to its provocative content that was deemed likely to disturb the peace.
The authorities cited security reasons for enforcing the ban, as reported by Mubi.
In the film, directed by Luca Guadagnino and premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, Daniel Craig plays a lonely drug-addicted gay man. The movie, based on a short novel by William S Burroughs, depicts a love story between two men with graphic sex scenes illustrating their emotional journey.
Mubi condemned the ban as a restriction on art and freedom of expression.
The statement from Mubi emphasized that festivals serve as spaces to celebrate art and cultural diversity, bringing people together. The ban not only affects a single film but also undermines the entire purpose and meaning of the festival.
Despite the decriminalization of homosexuality in Turkey in 1858, it remains stigmatized in many sectors of society. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been known to refer to LGBTQ+ individuals as “perverts” and has accused them of threatening traditional family values.
In 2020, Netflix canceled the production of a series in Turkey featuring a gay character after failing to obtain government approval for filming.
Since 2015, Istanbul’s annual Pride march has been banned each year on security grounds, and LGBTQ+ individuals report facing regular harassment and discrimination.
Mubi, headquartered in London, is a global arthouse movie streaming service, producer, and distributor founded in 2007 by Turkish entrepreneur Efe Cakarel. The platform offers streaming services in over 195 countries.