SINGAPORE — Organisers of the Singapore International Festival Of Arts’ (SIFA) pre-festival event The OPEN have withdrawn two films from its movie line-up after the Media Development Authority Singapore (MDA) said these required edits before it could be screened.

The films were Tony Manero by Chilean director Pablo Larrain and A German Youth by French film-maker Jean-Gabriel Periot. The former was scheduled to be shown on Saturday, June 20, while the latter was set for June 24 and 27, respectively, at indie film venue The Projector.

In a statement, organisers said they were informed yesterday (June 17) that both movies required a scene each to be cut due to sexual and mature content, respectively. Rather than screen a film with edits, the organisers have chosen to pull out both films “to respect the integrity of the directors’ vision and craft”.

The two scenes in question were a fellatio scene in Tony Manero and a scene featuring a video on how to make a Molotov cocktail in A German Youth. Both films had received an R21 rating on the condition that the scenes be edited.

In response to queries, an MDA spokesperson said that the MDA “does allow some leeway during classification of movies meant for festival screenings due to their niche nature. However, scenes with real sexual activities such as the one in Tony Manero exceed our existing Film Classification Guidelines for all ratings and screenings”.

Tony Manero, which was first shown in 2008, is the first in a trilogy of films by the award-winning director Larrain, which talks about life in Chile as a result of the military dictatorship of its late former leader Augusto Pinochet. The title is taken from John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever, with which the film’s protagonist has an obsession. The two other films in the trilogy, Post Mortem and No, will still be screened.

SIFA director Ong Keng Sen told TODAY: “The objection to the fellatio scene was that it was too graphic and extreme, but I told them it should be put into context on why people are behaving this way. It was about how violence and decadence has been imprinted in the human being.”

Meanwhile, A German Youth is a documentary that was shown at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. It traces the founding of the militant Red Army Faction and Baader-Meinhof Group.

Ong questioned the objection to the Molotov cocktail scene, citing how the information on making one is already available on the Internet. “I tried Googling how to make it and it’s all within the first four entries. We have to ask ourselves if these censorship guidelines are still applicable when all of these are available on the Internet,” he said.

Ong also questioned the decision for edits on films that were not slated for commercial release but instead for a festival, which will be screened in a small venue.

“The main issue is we don’t accept that it’s within our rights to demand from a film director to make these cuts. We would never request that and it’s something which is not in the etiquette of any film festival, which are meant to be a space for freedom, which commercial spaces cannot give,” he said.

The Projector has a seating capacity of 180 per screening. Viewers will have to purchase The OPEN’s festival pass to be able to sign up for the limited seats per movie screening. To date, more than 1,000 passes have been sold.

Members of the film community also weighed in. Singapore Film Society vice chairman David Lee urged for even more flexibility with regards to festival films. “For commercial release, perhaps I can understand. But for festivals such as The OPEN, I think more leeway is needed, especially since these are not amateur or pornographic films and they’ve been to other festivals and officially recognised by various practitioners. If (MDA) wants to make a distinction that targets the more sophisticated audiences that are there for arthouse films, then there should be very different standards,” he said.

Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) director Zhang Wenjie agreed that festivals should be a kind of “protected ground” for films. “In a lot of festivals around the world, there’s a kind of arrangement where, during the festival, everything is allowed. When we want to bring in a film that has been getting a lot of attention at other film festivals, and for some reason it has to be cut, can you really call the festival an international festival?” he said, adding that SGIFF has a strict policy of not showing films that would require cuts.

Last year, it withdrew the Filipino film Porno after it was rated R21 with cuts due to “sexual scenes and nudity”.