Hundreds offar-right activists burned a rainbow flag and cried "Shame!" during aprotest in the Georgian capital against an Oscar-nominated Swedish-Georgiangay-themed film which premiered amid a heavy police presence. Set in Georgia,"And Then We Danced" -- Sweden's official Oscar submission in thebest international feature film category -- is a love story about two maledancers in Georgia's national ballet company.
The drama has wonworldwide critical acclaim but was denounced by the Caucasus country'sinfluential Orthodox Church as an "affront to the traditional Georgianvalues". In front of the Amirani cinema in the capital Tbilisi, theanti-gay protesters chanted "Long live Georgia!" and"Shame!". They burned the rainbow flag as an Orthodox priest reciteda prayer. The interior ministry said 11 protesters were arrested for"disobeying police".
The cinema, whichhad earlier posted a video on Facebook of policemen checking the cinema's seatswith sniffer dogs. let ticket holders inside for the evening premiere showingand then shut the doors. "Georgian folk dance is an epitome of theGeorgian spiritual values, we will not let them defile our nationaltraditions," said one of the far-right protesters, 35-year-old housewifeTeona Gogava. Maka Kiladze, a forty-year-old choreographer who was among theaudience in the cinema, said: "There is huge interest towards the film inGeorgia. It's anomaly that we have to face an angry mob to attend a film screening".
'Dark times'
Earlier thisweek, Sandro Bregadze, a former junior minister in the ruling Georgian Dreamparty's government, said his nationalist Georgian March group would not allowthe film to be screened in Tbilisi, calling it "propaganda of sodomy".Levan Vasadze, a Georgian businessman with links to Russia's anti-Western andfar-right groups, said his supporters will "enter screening rooms in thesix cinemas in Tbilisi and turn off the projectors," also vowing to"shove back police if need be".
"Some farright groups and the Church have basically condemned the film and are planningto stop people from entering the sold out screenings," the film's directorLevan Akin, a Swede with Georgian roots, wrote on his Facebook page earlierFriday. These are "dark times we live in," he wrote, adding that itis important to "stand up against these shadowy forces in any way wecan".
Georgia'sinterior ministry issued a statement, promising to ensure "the protectionof public safety and order, as well as the freedom of self-expression"."We address everyone: obey the law. Otherwise, police will use theirlawful mandate and suppress unlawful acts immediately," the statementsaid. Homosexuality is still highly stigmatized in Georgia, a sociallyconservative Black Sea nation where the immensely influential Orthodox Churchhas previously clashed with Western-leaning governments over social issues.
Homosexuality wasbanned in Georgia after the country was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1921.After the Soviet Union's collapse, the ban was not enforced, but officiallyhomosexuality was only decriminalized in 2000, with anti-discrimination lawsadopted in 2006. Critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party have accused thegovernment of giving tacit support to homophobic and nationalist groups whichtraditionally support the party in elections and have staged protest ralliesagainst pro-Western opposition parties. - AFP