Daniel Craig’s film Queer has been banned in Turkiye hours before it was set to be the opening feature of a film festival in Istanbul.
Queer, directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, was to be the centrepiece of a four-day festival hosted by MUBI, a distribution company and streaming platform.
MUBI posted on its social media pages that it received a notification from the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office that Queer was banned because its content would “disturb the peace”.
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Homosexuality was decriminalised in Turkiye in the mid-19th century but under the ultra-conservative president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the LGBTQI community have faced discrimination and hostility.
Authorities have previously banned the rainbow flag and the Istanbul pride parade has been prohibited from going ahead every year since 2015.
Erdogan, who came to power in 2014, has frequently used derogatory terms to describe members of the LGBTQI community and told his party congress in October 2023, “We do not recognise LGBT. Whoever recognises LGBT can go and march with them.
“We are members of a structure that holds the institution of family solid, that strongly embraces the family institution”.
Following the Queer ban, MUBI decided to cancel the entire festival.
The company wrote, “We believe this ban is an intervention that restricts art and freedom of expression. Festivals are breathtaking spaces where art and cultural diversity are celebrated, bringing people together.
“This ban takes not just one movie from the meaning and purpose of the entire festival.”
Queer, which is due to be released in Australia on February 6 through local distributor Madman, is based on William Burrough’s 1985 novel. Set in the 1950s in Mexico City, it tells the story of a gay American expat who forms a connection with another man.
The movie also stars Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville and Jason Schwartzman and had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
In 2020, Netflix cancelled production on an original Turkish series after the government refused to grant the streamer a licence to film the show because it featured a gay character.
