Turkey bans 'Nymphomaniac' for sex scenes

Turkish authorities have banned Danish director Lars Von Trier's controversial movie epic "Nymphomaniac" from theatres for its extensive nudity and no-holds-barred sex scenes. The film premiered to cheers at the Berlin film festival last month. Its first part was planned to be screened in Turkey on March 14 and the second part on March 21. The movie was expected to be accompanied with a warning against children under age 18 watching it. But Turkey's cinema board, which includes representatives from the culture, interior and education ministries, banned the movie outright by a majority vote on Monday. Yamac Okur, a dissenting member of the board, said the decision was tantamount to "censorship". "Barring any cinema movie from commercial screening is unacceptable," he wrote on Twitter on Monday. "It could have been displayed by age rating. Otherwise, it is censorship". "Nymphomaniac" tells the story of a woman's sexual awakening from childhood to age 50. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg alongside Stellan Skarsgard and Shia LaBeouf. In January, EU member Romania said it had lifted its own ban on the movie and fired the official responsible for barring it following an uproar by artists and the culture minister.