Da Vinci Code movie banned in Sri Lanka

President responds to appeal by Catholic Bishops

COLOMBO: President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the Public Performances Board (PPB) to ban the screening of the movie The Da Vinci Code in local cinemas and on local television channels.

The decision to ban the film was taken on an appeal by the Catholic Bishops Conference in Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa told the Daily News yesterday.

The controversial Sony/Columbia Pictures movie based on Dan Brown's best-selling 2003 novel of the same name opened worldwide on May 18, after a premiere at Cannes, France.

Starring Oscar winner Tom Hanks in the lead role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, the movie directed by veteran film maker Ron Howard rang up box office revenues exceeding US$ 224 million in just three days despite harsh reviews by well-known critics. It also stars French actress Audrey Tautou as cryptologist Sophie Neveu.

"The book version has already caused confusion between fact and fiction. It is manipulative. It is an odious, false, unjust and irreverent portrayal of Lord Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. It attacks the very roots of our Christian faith and hurts the religious sensibilities of all Christians," stated the Catholic Bishops Conference in a letter sent to President Rajapaksa.

The Bishops charged that the movie is a product of a "totally perverted mind" and that it reaches the height of moral corruption.

"It matters greatly to us as it adversely affects the most sacred beliefs of our people when it levels the charge that the Catholic Church is essentially a vast network founded on maintaining the lie of Jesus' Divinity."

Calling the film and the book blasphemous, the Bishops said the book attacks the very person and mission of Jesus Christ.

"Those who say the book is just a story do not understand that this deception is part of the book's power.

The book and the film are offensive to Christians. Brown and Howard are clearly targeting Christians when they attack what is most sacred to us, namely the person of Jesus Christ," the letter added.

The Bishops pointed out that while artistic creativity needs a climate of freedom, such freedom cannot be separated from responsibility.

There will be no ban on the sales of the book and a ban on the Region 5 DVD, expected next year, is unlikely.

There will also be no ban on eventual pay-per-view cable and satellite broadcasts of the film originating from outside Sri Lanka

The book's central premise of a historical lineage from Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene sparked critical condemnation worldwide and led to calls for the film's banning in several countries.

Many critics have attacked the book as poorly written, inaccurate and creating confusion between speculation and fact. Similar views have been expressed about the movie as well.

From a religious point of view, some critics consider it sacrilegious and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei. The Da Vinci Code, published by Random House and Doubleday, has sold more than 60 million copies as of May 2006 and has been translated into 44 languages.

The book begins with an urgent late-night phone call to Langdon: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher.

Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci - clues visible for all to see, and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. In a breathless race through Paris, London and beyond, Langdon and Neveu try to decipher the labyrinthine puzzle, The Da Vinci Code, in time.