Several Canadian filmmakers are up in arms over a decision by the Ontario Film Review Board to ban the French-language feature Baise-moi, which includes a brutal and explicit rape scene.

The ban was condemned by Canadian director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia's Journey) in a letter to the Toronto Star. Egoyan wrote that after it was screened last September at the Toronto International Film Festival, some people walked out appalled and shocked, "just as others left the theater excited, moved, or completely neutral. All these people were trusted with making up their own minds. This is how civilized, democratic societies work."

Marcelle Lean, chairman of the Ontario Film Development Corp. and a former member of the review board, commented that while she found the film "hideous and revolting ... I would like to know that moviegoers were able to form their own opinions by being free to go and see it." However, Ontario Film board Chairman Bob Warren told the Star: "I can just see this going on the mainstream shelves of a video store and having someone take it home and their 14-year-old popping it into a video. That can happen. Then what would people think about what we're doing here?" The film has been conditionally approved by the film boards of Quebec and British Columbia.

Source: Studio Briefing