Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has cancelled the release of his much anticipated film, Sang Sattawat (Syndromes and a Century) after the censors yesterday demanded that four “sensitive” scenes be cut.

The film - which was nominated for a Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival - tells the story of doctors at a rural hospital and is based on the director’s memories of growing up in the hospital environment.

The scenes the board found objectionable show a young monk playing a guitar, a group of doctors drinking whisky in a hospital basement, a doctor kissing his girlfriend in a hospital locker room, and two monks playing with a radio-controlled aeroplane.

According to Supawat Pothong, a representative of the Medical Council who attended the censorship board meeting yesterday, “The scenes involving doctors are inappropriate. Drinking whisky in a hospital is not proper conduct by medical professionals.”

And if doctors do drink, the best response - according to the Thai Medical Council - is to pretend they don’t.

Mr Apichatpong emailed the Bangkok Post to say that he had no intention of making the cuts and will withdraw the film instead.

“I, as a filmmaker, treat my works as I do my own sons or daughters,” he wrote. “I don’t care if people are fond of them or despise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts.

“If these offspring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reason, let them be free. There is no reason to mutilate them in fear of the system. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”

The film had been scheduled to open on April 19th on two screens in Bangkok.

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