"Schindler's List," Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning film about the Holocaust, is being effectively barred from theaters in many Arab and Islamic countries.
Citing everything from the Hebron massacre, in which a Jewish extremist killed Muslim worshipers, to the assertion that the movie is "propaganda with the purpose of asking for sympathy" to the traditional Muslim abhorrence of nudity and sex in movies, various Islamic governments have given the film a cold, if not hostile, reception. At the same time, the film, a major success in Europe, Asia and Latin America, is expected to gross $100 million overseas by tomorrow. Most countries in the Middle East, with the exception of Israel, are expected to bar it, however.
"It's just disgraceful," Mr. Spielberg, the film's director, said in an interview. "It shocks me because I thought the Islamic countries would feel this film could be an instrument of their own issues in what was happening in Bosnia."
On Tuesday, the Lebanese authorities confiscated advertising material about the film and said that any imported prints of the movie would be confiscated. They declined to give a reason for their actions. Jordan has said it will ban the film. The Government of Malaysia has asked that seven scenes with nudity, sexual content or violence be deleted, but Mr. Spielberg has said this is unthinkable. And the film is now before censorship boards in Egypt and Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation.
Some experts on Islamic culture suggested that a Muslim government, aware of Mr. Spielberg's refusal to trim the film, might find that demanding cuts in scenes with sexual overtones was a convenient way to keep the movie out without creating a political issue. Outrage Viewed as Naive
Gerry Lewis, an international marketing consultant for Mr. Spielberg's company, Amblin Entertainment, who is overseeing the film's release abroad, said of the Arab and Muslim response: "We were all quite shocked at the beginning when we met this opposition. The movie is a historical record of something that actually happened, a historical horror. It seems extraordinary that any group of people can reject the film for contemporary reasons."
But Arab experts said it was perhaps naive for movie makers to view the film as only a historical document unrelated to the incendiary atmosphere of the Middle East. Showing the film to Arab audiences, they said, could result in violence at movie theaters.
Mr. Spielberg, in a telephone interview, said the ban had its "roots in anti-Semitism" and was "certainly an attack against Jews."
"It's disgraceful that these countries do this," he continued, "especially in light of the very valid condemnation of Serbian atrocities and alleged genocide in Bosnia. This movie speaks not only on the Jewish Holocaust but of every Holocaust, by anyone's definition."
The film, based on the book by Thomas Keneally, deals with the rescue of more than a thousand Jews by Oskar Schindler, a businessman and Nazi Party member.
In recent weeks, "Schindler's List" has come under harsh scrutiny in several nations. In Jordan, the Information Minister, Jawad Al Anani, said he wanted to ban the film because of the Hebron massacre, in which 29 Muslims were killed and 90 wounded. "This is not an opportune time" to show the film, Mr. Anani said. He also challenged Hollywood to be "fair" by making films depicting Palestinian suffering. 'Virtues of a Certain Race Only'
It was Malaysia that initially banned the film as "propaganda with the purpose of asking for sympathy." In addition, Malaysia said the film depicted Jews as "stout-hearted" and "intelligent," while showing Germans as brutal. A letter from the Government's censorship board to the distributors said, "The story of the film reflects the privilege of virtues of a certain race only." The Government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad has long been a fierce critic of Israel and Zionism.
After an outcry from leaders of Jewish organizations and others, the Malaysian authorities said they would reconsider the ban but only if numerous scenes were deleted. Mr. Lewis of Amblin Entertainment said these included scenes with sexual content, a scene of a Jewish man being shot in the head by a German, and scenes of naked men and women being examined by German doctors.
Mr. Spielberg was adamant about not making trims. "I won't make one cut," he said. "I'm not interested in getting into a contest with them. This film needs to be shown intact. There's nothing more obscene than the events that took place between 1933 and 1945. It wouldn't interest me to water down these events because 'Schindler's List' is only a shadow of the actual events. The actual events are much too impossible and obscene to picture in any medium. The film is very, very close to a sensitive line that I drew on the ground when I made the movie between what is viewable and what is not."
The film is being distributed abroad by United International Pictures, the international distribution arm of Universal, Paramount, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and United Artists.
Mr. Lewis, said by telephone from his office in London that the film had recently been sent to the censorship board in Egypt and that there had been no response as yet. Attacked by Indonesian Clerics
"Schindler's List" is also before the censorship board in Indonesia, where its fate remains uncertain. The film has been denounced in Indonesia by a prominent organization of Muslim clerics, who said it was too sympathetic in its treatment of Jews. Although some Indonesian academics have said that the film should be released, there was some agreement that its depictions of nudity and sexual scenes would have to be deleted.
The Philippines, which has a sizable Muslim population but is overwhelmingly Christian, at first refused to allow the movie to be shown without the deletion of several seconds of film showing bare female breasts and a couple engaged in sex. Mr. Spielberg refused, and the film was shown, but only after the intervention of President Fidel V. Ramos, who overruled the censorship board.
Although Universal Pictures, which distributed the movie, was worried about its commercial prospects, "Schindler's List" has emerged as a major success. The film has grossed about $75 million in the United States, said John Krier, the president of the Exhibitor Relations Company, which monitors box-office grosses for studios.
Mr. Lewis said the film had done exceptionally well overseas in areas other than the Middle East. In Germany, he said, "Schindler's List" is No. 1 at the box office and is being shown in 500 theaters; last weekend, he said, over 500,000 Germans saw it.
"Schindler's List," is also dominating the box office in Austria and Italy as well as in Japan and in Latin America. The film is doing well in Poland, where the events it depicts took place, despite a number of negative reviews. It is to open in the Soviet Union in June.
Mr. Lewis said there were no plans at the moment for the film to be released in such countries as Saudi Arabia, India or Pakistan.