By Waj S. Khan, Producer, NBC News
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –“Very Zero, Very Dark” reads one Pakistani film review.
“Zero IQ Thirty” another headline screams.
But just like Osama Bin Laden, the subject of the Oscar contender that recreates the most expensive manhunt in history, "Zero Dark Thirty" is not supposed to be in Pakistan.
The film has not been released, officially. Thus, there is no response, officially, from Pakistani government censors to Kathryn Bigelow's controversial depiction of Pakistan. Therefore, technically, no one in Pakistan is supposed to have ever seen the movie.
But in reality, "Zero Dark Thirty" is being watched, noticed, slammed and unofficially banned, even while trending on Twitter.
Some of the backlash in the mainstream press here was balanced.
“Though sharp in its production and direction and largely accurate in depicting the events that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden,” wrote respected columnist, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, in Dawn newspaper. “It went ballistic bad in depicting everyday life on the streets of Pakistan.”
But in reality, "Zero Dark Thirty" is being watched, noticed, slammed and unofficially banned, even while trending on Twitter.
Some of the backlash in the mainstream press here was balanced.
“Though sharp in its production and direction and largely accurate in depicting the events that led to the death of Osama Bin Laden,” wrote respected columnist, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, in Dawn newspaper. “It went ballistic bad in depicting everyday life on the streets of Pakistan.”
But what triggered more questions about the movie's message and motive here was when the country’s major cinema players decided not to buy the film from international distributors.
“As a local distributor, there was no financial viability for me. The film was already widely available in the [pirated] DVD market,” said Mohsin Yaseen, general manager of Cinepax, the largest multiplex chain in Pakistan . “But as a film buff, the movie was inaccurate about Pakistan. If you’re going to say something about a complicated part of the world, then you should say it right.”
But Nadeem Mandviwalla, chief executive of Mandviwalla Entertainment, who has been buying and distributing Hollywood blockbusters for three decades in Pakistan, played down the hype.
“This whole ‘ban, ban, ban’ bit is a scam. It’s an assumption and just pure hype that’s perfectly timed for Oscar season,” Mandviwalla said. “There is no politics [regarding screening "Zero Dark Thirty"]. There are tons of movies that don’t make it here. It’s not a political decision the army or the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence agency] makes for us. We, as businessmen, make it. And it was bad business modeling to bring this movie to Pakistan.”
But on the ground, reality has matched the fiction featured in the 157-minute thriller. In Islamabad, the movie was widely available in local DVD stores until mid-January, offered with either the original cover art or a locally designed version featuring bin Laden and current al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri.
Things are different now.
“We were asked to stop selling the movie by some guys a couple of weeks after we started stocking it,” said an attendant at Illusions, a popular movie and music retailer in Islamabad’s upscale Jinnah Super arcade.
“There were four of them. Two stood outside, as if on guard, and two came inside and told us that 'Zero Dark Thirty' was banned,” said the man who asked not to be named because for his own security. “They said they were from Aabpara [the local neighborhood that headquarters the ISI]. They asked us to send the DVDs back to the warehouse, and they took a few discs back for themselves.”
“They were very polite,” he added.
("Zero Dark Thirty" is distributed in some parts of the world by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal.)
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Judul: Zero Dark Thirty ban: unofficially banned in Pakistan
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