By V4 Agency
The British director of the drama Supernova talks of censorship after the Russian distributor cut out a 3-minute homosexual sex scene from it. The film revolves around the relationship of a gay couple starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci.
The director of the 2020 British drama Supernova, condemns Russian distributor after finding out on the 11 March premiere that an intimate homosexual scene had been cut from the film. Harry McQueen said, “we stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities around the world and have expressed to the Russian distributor our deep concerns [regarding the editing].”
According to the BBC Russian Service, the director has stated that he will not tolerate “this kind of censorship” and would like the film to be “shown in its original, unedited form around the world.” Film critic Anton Dolin complains that the Russian-cut version of the film does not reveal the “quality” of the relationship, from the viewer’s perspective it only suggests a close friendship between the two men.
Head of the Russian distributor World Pictures, Sergey Shcherbinin, did not comment on McQueen’s statements.
The BBC cites a similar “censorship” issue mentioning the film Rocketman (2019) about the life story of Elton John, from which homosexual scenes were cut. At that time Elton John wrote Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing his displeasure.
Putin responded to Elton John’s “reproaches” while at the G-20 summit in Osaka saying that he respects him very much, “he is a brilliant musician (…) and we all enjoy listening to him, but I think he is mistaken (…), we are not negatively biased against members of the LGBTQ community. However, we have a law that causes people to judge us – this law prohibits the promotion of homosexuality among minors,” he explained. He went on to say, “let the child grow up and decide for himself” about his or her orientation.