Local teen flick withdrawn after Muslim leaders' protest

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

After weeks of controversy, the government-sanctioned Film Censorship Institute (LSF) pulled local movie Buruan Cium Gue (Kiss me quick) from cinemas.

LSF chairwoman Titie Said said the institute withdrew its approval of the film on the grounds that it had "disrupted public order".

"We have to listen to aspirations from the public. Following public rejection of the film, both LSF and movie producer Multivision Plus withdrew the film together," she said.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a letter to revoke the distribution license of the film, while Multivision asked cinemas to stop screening it.

Titie said that the censorship body had allowed the film to be distributed for public viewing after cutting several scenes and giving it an X-rating, meaning it was approved for moviegoers aged 17 years old and above.

The movie, which has a kissing scene at the end, has been screened at cinemas for two weeks.

"We did not anticipate the public furor after the movie was released in theaters," Titie said.

LSF has allowed many imported films with sex scenes to be screened in cinemas across the world's most populous Muslim country.

The House of Representatives is deliberating a bill on public morality, which bans kissing in public.

The was no such outcry when local film Arisan (Get Together), in which gay lovers kiss, was screened last year.

However, citing the underaged characters in Buruan Cium Gue, noted Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar protested against the film, saying kissing encouraged premarital sex.

He acknowledged he had never seen the movie but had come to the conclusion after hearing the film's title.

"People say to me, once you've kissed, your hands will go all over the place. Kiss me quick means 'Hurry Up and Have Illicit Sex with Me'," the Warta Kota daily quoted Gymnastiar as saying.

The Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) also made a similar protest and went further by asking the government to stop the distribution of the movie.

The scriptwriter of the movie, Ve Handojo, said the reaction to the film illustrated immaturity.

"It is funny because they are reacting to the title," he said as quoted by Associated Press. "Most of the protesters have not watched the movie."

Multivision Plus producer of the movie Raam Punjabi could not be reached for comment.