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A shower in the a.m.Arts
Author of Brick Lane - Monica Ali
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Brick Lane royal gala cancelled amid protest fears
5/10/2007
Brick Lane, the film adaptation of the Monica Ali bestseller, has been pulled as this year's Royal Film Performance, with reports suggesting organisers feared ongoing protests about the film might embarrass Prince Charles.
The official line is that the performance, which the Prince would have attended, was cancelled because of scheduling problems. "Brick Lane was chosen, but we have been informed that the date no longer works in the royal diary and for this reason there will be no Royal Film Performance this year," Peter Hore, chief executive of the Cinema & Television Benevolent Fund, which helps organise the charity screening, told the Sunday Telegraph. Instead, two shows will take place in 2008.
However, media reports claim there were fears the gala could have become the target of the same group which forced the film's production out of the East End street last summer. Traders in Brick Lane, London's famed row of Bangladeshi restaurants, mounted a successful campaign to force production company Ruby Films to find an alternative location.
Ali's bestseller tells the tale of a young Bangladeshi woman struggling to adapt to her new life in London after she becomes part of an arranged marriage. "It is very sad that the film was announced and then withdrawn just a few days later because someone at Clarence House, or wherever, had seen the film and fears that it will damage the Royal Family in some way," Parminder Vir, an advisor on the film who collected an OBE from Prince Charles in 2002 for her services to broadcasting and film, told the Sunday Telegraph.
"This plays into the hands of people who want us to live in fear of immigration and Islam. Showing this film would not damage anyone. It is not a film about race but about one woman's struggle in a new country. She just happens to be a Muslim from Bangladesh," said Vir.
"The cancellation of the Royal Film Performance is a real shame," the movie's director, Sarah Gavron, told Variety. "The cast and crew of the film were excited at the recognition for their work and are now understandably disappointed. The clear message from audiences once they have seen the film is that it is absolutely not disrespectful or controversial in any way. None of those elements cited by the minority of protesters during the production period appear in the film," she added.
Brick Lane will now premiere at the London film festival on October 26. Last year's Royal Film Performance was Casino Royale.
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