GagWatch

Singapore’s Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, which vets all films before release, has banned a documentary on the grounds that it is “distorted and misleading” and could undermine confidence in the government.

The film, Zahari’s 17 Years, is a 49-minute interview with Said Zahari, who was arrested in 1963 on suspicion of plotting violent acts and detained without trial for 17 years. It was made in 2005 and received a PG rating in 2006. When it was not shown at the 2006 Singapore International Film Festival, as he expected, director, Martyn See, applied for an exhibition license to screen it publicly.

The Singaporean authorities have now decided that the film was an attempt to clear Said of his involvement in activities against Singapore and ordered See to surrender all copies of the film by Wednesday afternoon.

“I don’t know what changed. Maybe different people with different views watched it this time,” See told The Associated Press. “I based my questions to Said on his first book, which is sold in Singapore. So what is in the film is not something the government didn’t know.”

Said, contacted by telephone at his home in Malaysia, was shocked to hear of the ban. He said he had already accepted an invitation to come to Singapore next month to give a speech at the film’s screening by a university film institute.

“This is very funny. I don’t understand why they would ban it at all. What I said in the movie I have already said in my book, and much, much more,” he told AP. “That was 40 years ago. Is the government still afraid?”

The banning of Zahari’s 17 Years under the Film Act prohibits exhibition, possession and distribution of the film.

See was investigated by police last year concerning Singapore Rebel, a documentary he made about an opposition leader. That film was screened at film festivals in New Zealand and the United States, but not in Singapore where the director received a “stern warning” but could have faced prison time or a fine if convicted of knowingly producing and distributing a “party political film.”

Amnesty International criticized Singapore for that case against See, saying the city-state was stifling artistic freedom and preventing citizens from expressing dissenting views.

A trailer for the film can be found on both YouTube and the Internet Archive.

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post