Cineworld Pulls ‘Lady of Heaven’ From UK Theaters After Protests

Exhibitor Cineworld cancels all UK screenings lady in the sky, A movie about the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, which caused protests in some cinemas. In a statement from Cineworld, “Due to recent events related to our testimony, lady in the skyTo ensure the safety of our employees and customers, we have decided to cancel future screenings across the country.”

Deadline heard that the film would be screened at nine Cineworld locations, with protests at two of them being offensive with verbal attacks on executives. Executive producer Malik Shlibak told the BBC they were treating his protesters like “thugs and bullies”, rushing to theaters and scaring staff, but warned that canceled screenings could trigger similar protests in the future. “This is not something that should be tolerated in the UK; This is more than just a movie. Today lady in the sky“It may be worth more to you tomorrow,” he said.

More than 120,000 people signed a petition for director Eli King to pull the film from all UK cinemas. The Bolton Mosque Council called the film a “curse” and said it “misrepresents orthodox historical narratives and disrespects the most respected people in Islamic history”. Bolton News reported. Some groups criticized him for portraying Muhammad as a taboo in Islam.

The film first premiered elsewhere in 2021, and its website states: “According to Islamic tradition, no one was a saint at the time of filming. The depictions of saints were achieved through a unique synthesis of actors, camera effects, lighting and visual effects. The producers had previously They told Deadline that they were trying very hard not to show the holy person represented by the man.

Cineworld’s decision was criticized by some as a blow to freedom of speech, Health Minister Sajid Javid told TalkTV: “We don’t have blasphemy laws in this country, I think that would be an incredibly dangerous path.” “What we have in this country is freedom of speech and expression.”

შლიბაკი told him Protection He praised people for expressing their views, but said theaters “should stand up and seek the rights to show the movies people want to see”… I think cinemas are cracking under pressure and they make these decisions to silence the noise.

A Vue International spokesperson said the film will “release in several of our cinemas. Decisions about how long to display are made by the site and are based on a variety of commercial and operational factors.”

Interestingly, the movie is not listed on the UK Cinema Distributors Association website as it was released last week. We also understand that this will not generate a significant amount of cash registers.