Beirut Spring

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Politics move quickly and opinions evolve. There's a good chance I no longer hold some of the opinions expressed in the post below
—Mustapha

Lebanese Movie Banned for Explicit Sexual Content

December 10, 2011 · Mustapha Hamoui

Beirut Hotel Movie Poster

-The instigator-

I haven’t seen Danielle Arbid’s “Beirut Hotel” , but from watching the trailer, it seems to me that the film was banned from Lebanese movie theaters not for “endangering national security”, as was claimed by our ever intelligence-insulting censors, but because it features a double-whammy of a taboo: Explicit sex between a Lebanese woman and a foreign man.

I was toying with the idea that Danielle Arbid could be Lebanon’s Aliaa Mahdy , and apparently Arbid herself is not far from that thought. In her facebook page, there is only one other page that she ‘likes’: That of Aliaa Mahdy.

We all know in advance the result of Arbid’s cleverly placed bait: More Lebanese than ever will now want to watch “Beirut Hotel”. Well played Danielle..

Related: How Censorship Actually Works in Lebanon.
And: Don’t Blame the Sureté Generale for Censorship.