Biblical film “Noah” Has Been Censored In Some Middle Eastern Countries

Director Darren Aronofsky’s and Paramount studio’s next mega budget biblical film Noah has been censored in many parts of Middle East. According to several media reports, the movie boards of Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates notified Paramount that they will not allow releasing the film in their respective countries. More prohibitions are projected to happen, with Paramount’s sources apparently anticipating Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait boards to announce the similar verdict.

Russell Crowe has played the biblical prophet Noah, who perceives visions of a devastating flood and deems them to be indications from God and creates an ark to save his people and as many animals as possible. The Harry Potter star Emma Watson has played the role of the adopted daughter of Noah, while Anthony Hopkins plays sagacious grandfather of the prophet. In the meantime, Jennifer Connelly has played the role of Prophet’s wife Naameh.

The most prominent Sunni Muslim foundation Al-Azhar in Egypt has released a proclamation on Thursday reprobating the film story and declaring it to be an unacceptable adaptation for Muslims around the world. Al-Azhar, in their proclamation, mentioned that the film is ‘against belief and the basics of the Islamic [law]’.

According to a number of media reports, Paramount studio had already doubts that the film Noah could face distribution problems or might be banned in some parts of Islamic countries. Noah is recently projected to be launched on March 26 in Egypt, March 27 in Australia and March 28 in USA. But it's not only Islamic world that found the Biblical story odious, as Noah has also sparked debate in the whole USA and various religious communities has apprehensions about the film.

Paramount carried out many test screenings of a number of adaptations of the Biblical story during late 2013, and as per reliable media sources, the pessimistic feedback from the people at some of these caused disagreement between the studio and director regarding various key points. Nevertheless, in February it was declared that Darren's original cut, not any of the later changes, would be shown in the cinemas around the world.

Paramount is taking a great risk with this divisive film of around $130 million budget. According to a current survey of religious filmgoers, the religious believers would not be interested in watching "Noah". But Paramount slammed the survey as an erroneous misrepresentation based on the poll questions which did not straightly cite "Noah.”