Minister Orders for the Removal of Sex Scenes from New Movie

Related Stories Minister of information, John Tia has allegedly ordered for the removal of sex scenes in Gupado and Marhill production’s new movie,‘Trinity’, which is set to premiere at the Silverbird in Accra on Thursday July 1. This has however incurred the wrath of the movie’s director, Pascal Amanfo, who bitterly complained about the activities of the Censorship Board. According to him, if the board is really bent on censoring movies, it should do it holistically and not only zero down on sex in the movies. “I am not a mediocre African. I went to school and I am a very intelligent young man and I think when you see foreign movies, you see they put things there. You see SVN sometime L; which means strong language, violence, sex or nudity. Why have we taken only the sex and forgotten about the strong language and violence? There are a lot of movies there with bloody and gunshot scenes. Interestingly, children are allowed to watch those movies but then we criticize a girl in a movie who takes off her brassiere. I am not saying I support sex in movies but I am saying if we are going to do it then let’s do it holistically. We clap for bloody scenes, including armed robbery, but complain about romantic scenes. That is mediocre. We are being hypocrites because on our streets, even in Accra, Opera Square, there are pornographic movies from China that are being sold every day and nobody is saying anything,” he told BEATWAVES at the movie’s press screening last Monday. Pascal said he does not have a problem with sex in a movie if there is a story behind it. “I don’t know how many prostitutes make love with their customers under blanket. It does not make any sense. I will not shoot a scene if there is no story behind it, but if there is a sensible story behind the story, I will film it.” According to him, in Nigeria, when they are censoring a movie, it means they are classifying that movie. “Because of the way things are going, I think, if we really want to censor movies well, we should define what amounts to an explicit sex scene. And this has to be at a stakeholders’ conference. Secondly, after defining all that, we must now define classification. In Africa, we should look at who is an adult? Is it an 18-year-old, 21-year-old or 16-year-old? We have to define all that, then, we have to find account registration to parental guidance and all that, down to age limit. That is my problem. If we are really going to censor, let’s not just pick only sex. Let us understand this,” he intimated. The latest movie, which is about to stir up a controversy, is about a presidential candidate, Maccoy Yeboah, played by Kofi Adjorlolo, who is very close to clinching political power, yet has a looming charge of corruption and drug trafficking to be leveled against him. With the assistance of Naveda’s own husband, fellow Barrister Dan (Majid Michel), Macoy Yeboah frames Barrister Naveda Daniels for the murder of another lawyer, Val Ayew (Luckie Lawson). What transpired subsequently is what movie enthusiasts must see for themselves. Among the cast include Ekow Smith Asante, Kalsoum Sinare, Roseline Ngissah, Gavivina Tamakloe, Eddie Nartey and introducing five-year-old promising actress Imogen Hogg.