Australian cinemas shun film about local ethnic violence

Australian cinemas shun film about local ethnic violenceSydney - A cinema chain was Monday accused of censorship for refusing to show a locally made feature film about ethnic tensions between Arabs and white Australians.

Greater Union stopped showing the film about Sydney's Lebanese-Australian enclaves after fights broke out following a screening in Sydney at the weekend, saying it had to "err on the side of the safety of staff and patrons."

Allanah Zitserman, the distributor of The Combination, said Greater Union was practising censorship.

"This is a powerful film, that's been critically acclaimed, that should be seen by every Australian," she said. "We can't give in to violence - just like we don't cancel the cricket because a bunch of louts throw beer cans."

George Basha, who plays a Lebanese-Australian fresh out of jail, said the decision to not show the film was "discriminatory" because Greater Union had never cancelled screenings of other films for that reason.

"You've got 300 or 400 people in the cinema, and then you've got three or four kids, 15 and 16 years old, making a nuisance," Basha said. "The cinema is saying they were smoking in the cinema, and there were fights breaking out ... I've seen fights happen. I'm pretty sure those films didn't get closed down."

The film shows actual footage of the 2005 riots at Cronulla in which white youths hunted down Arabs and assaulted them.

Film critic David Stratton defended the film and blasted Greater Union. "It's akin to shooting the messenger," he said. "Good films are meant to provoke and challenge, and that is what this film does." (dpa)

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