A Dutch film, The Dinner Club, has been banned by Uganda’s censorship board after accusing it of “glorifying homosexuality” the Embassy of The Netherlands in Kampala has said.
Gay sex is illegal in Uganda.
The embassy said in a Facebook post that it “deplored” the decision to ban the film.
It then published the full list of objections from the media council which also include using “lurid language”, and “smoking especially by women”.
The Uganda Media Council according to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) described the film as women forming a “Dinner Club which is in reality a sort of brothel”, and said the film included scenes of “gay men sauntering away drunk”.
It said “while glorifying homosexuality two women say marriage (presumably to men) is hard work! This is against Ugandan values.”
The council also objected to one man calling another a “hot chick”.
In the comments under the embassy’s Facebook post, many people support the media council’s stand.
One person said: “People from [the] West should know that Uganda has a culture and it’s very right to prohibit what they see [as] evil or will torment our culture.”
But the embassy gets some support, with another person writing: “This is just unfortunate. The author at the media council does not represent the views of the majority of Ugandans. In fact he has greatly embarrassed many of us.”
The film was released in 2010 and was due to be shown in a European film festival in Uganda.
But the Embassy of the Netherlands said it will no longer taking part in the festival.
Posted by Juliet Ekwebelam
