Anti-Saddam film banned

The Malaysian censorship board has banned the local release of “Marooned in Iraq,” a film by acclaimed Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, which details the effect of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks on the Iraqi Kurds in 1988, according to the British trade publication Screen International.

Censorship Film Malaysia described “Marooned in Iraq” as a weapon of U.S. propaganda that could “dangerously jeopardize relations between Malaysia and Iraq.” Neil Friedman, who brokered the deal, said, “The film has nothing to do with this war or the U.S. and merely shows life in Kurdistan, another part of the Islamic world.” The film will be released in the U.S. on April 18.

-- Lynn Smith