Glimpses of preparations for the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI). File
| Photo Credit: ANI

The Union Government denied film festival screening permissions to four films set in the Gaza Strip, Turkey, Hungary and Bhutan last year, according to records from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 

The four films are — A Gaza Weekend, a satire directed by Basil Khalil set in a post-epidemic Israel where the Gaza strip becomes the safest place in the Levant; Explanation for Everything, a Hungarian drama directed by Gábor Reisz that won the Orizzonti award for best film at the 80th Venice Film Festival; The Monk And The Gun, directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, another satire featuring mock elections in Bhutan; and Dormitory, directed by Nehir Tuna, a drama about a teenager sent to a residential Islamic seminary by his father. 

These films were denied permission by the I&B Ministry to be screened at the 54th International Film Festival of India held last November in Goa. Film festivals usually feature a range of international cinema, and considering the smaller overall size of the audiences, the government waives the requirement for a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). 

While the certification board is not involved, the I&B Ministry still requires government clearance for films to be played in festivals in India. For this exemption from a CBFC certificate, organisers must form a “preview committee,” “compris[ing] persons who are related to the film industry or are critics/writers connected with film,” the guidelines framed in 2006 for this purpose state. 

The denial from the Ministry doesn’t appear to be consistent for at least one of the films concerned — The Monk and the Gun was Bhutan’s official entry to the Oscars, and even though it was denied a screening in November at IFFI, it was shown at the Jio MAMI Film Festival in Mumbai the previous month, and even won an award. The film is set to be released theatrically in India at some point — a trailer by Impact Films has been shown in Indian cinemas, approval for which was granted in February by the CBFC.