A controversial film which suggests that Jesus Christ fathered a child through a love affair with his disciple Mary Magdalen may possibly show in the Bahamas.
Pending approval by the Bahamas Plays and Films Control Board (BPFCB), which is scheduled to screen the movie on Friday, The Da Vinci Code may be allowed to play on screens across the country.
A spokesperson for the BPFCB told The Tribune that that they could not yet say if it would consider banning the film from being screened in Bahamian cinemas, as members had not yet had the chance to view the movie.
"The movie is coming to us late (from the distributors) so we won't be able to review it until early Friday morning," she said.
However the spokesperson said she did not think that there would be any reason for the film not to be shown in the Bahamas.
The book 'The Da Vinci Code' has sold more than 46 million copies, been translated into 44 languages and is now a publishing phenomenon.
The movie opens in American theaters on Friday, with Tom Hanks headlining a star-studded cast.
In 2005, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then a senior figure within the Vatican's office of doctrinal orthodoxy, attacked Brown's novel for being rich in "anti-Catholic" prejudice. Many churches and denominations have urged Christians to boycott the book on the grounds that it is blasphemous and insulting about the foundations of the Christian faith.
Anger over The Da Vinci Code, which is premiering today at the Cannes Film Festival, escalated on Tuesday as Christian groups from South Korea, Thailand, Greece and India planned boycotts, a hunger strike and attempts to block or shorten screenings.
In India, the government put a temporary hold on the movie's release because of complaints.
Censors in Buddhist Thailand said Tuesday they wanted to cut 10 minutes from the end after Christian protesters persuaded them that the film contained blasphemous scenes.
The censor board, run by Thailand's national police, also wants to run a disclaimer before the movie to make clear that the story is fiction.
The Indian government yesterday put a temporary hold on the release of The Da Vinci Code in India – although the national censor board has cleared the movie – saying it must address concerns raised by some groups before the film is screened at cinemas.
In the Philippines, a threemember committee of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) gave an R-18 rating to the controversial Hollywood film.
In South Korea, which has 13 million Protestants and 4.6 million Roman Catholics, a court ruled an Tuesday that a Christian group's reqaest for an injunction to block screenings lacked merit.
The Philippines gave the move an R rating, while in the US the film was given a PG (Parental Guidance) -13 rating.
Source: The Tribune
