A shot from the movie Pride | Photo: IMDB/Pathé
Bill Nighy and other actors from the 2014 film Pride penned an open letter to Turkey after they banned a screening of the film.
Ankara, Turkey’s capital and second-largest city, recently shut down the screening.
According to the Hurriyet Daily News, a communist LGBT group announced a screening of Pride on 28 June at the Nazım Hikmet Cultural Center.
Authorities said such events can ‘incite hatred and enmity’ and provoke danger. These are the same reasons authorities gave for canceling a gay film festival in Ankara last November.
22 people in all signed the letter, including director Matthew Warchus. Nighy and fellow actors who appeared in the movie, such as Imelda Staunton and Dominic West, also signed it. Finally, the real-life activists who inspired the film also added their signatures.
‘Disturbed by reports of growing repression’
Pride is based on the true story of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners movement (LGSM) during British miners’ long-lasting strike in the 1980s. It brought two communities together, leading to lifelong support for one another.
The film won the Queer Palm at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It also won Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the BAFTAs.
Nighy called it one of the best projects he’s ever worked on.
‘As members of the creative team which produced the 2014 film Pride, and activists portrayed in that film, we are disturbed by reports of the growing repression of the LGBT+ community in Turkey culminating in the recent ban of the annual Pride parade and police violence against those who courageously defied the ban,’ the letter reads.
‘Reports that the Ankara authorities also banned a screening of the film Pride are a chilling reminder that political authoritarianism regards artistic expression as its enemy.’
The letter further describes the decision as ‘Orwellian’. The movie screened before in Turkey at the 2015 Istanbul Film Festival.
Growing concerns in the country
The decision to ban the movie comes not longer after Istanbul Pride faced its own troubles.
Pride was canceled, but groups decided to ignore the ban and hold it anyway.
When they did, police stormed the event and arrested dozens of people after releasing rubber bullets and tear gas.
