Controversial Haifa Wehbe film pulled from UAE and Egyptian cinemas

The UAE distributor for the film Halawet Rooh has confirmed that it made the decision to remove the controversial drama from cinemas across the country.

Theatres including VOX Cinemas confirmed to Yahoo Maktoob via email that the movie – starring Lebanese singer and actress Haifa Wehbe – was removed just before the weekend. Distributor Gulf Film stated that it had made the decision to withdraw the film, despite not receiving instruction to do so from the National Media Council (NMC).

However, the movie will continue to show in Lebanon.

Halawet Rooh – which tells the story of a married woman who becomes an object of desire and sexual obsession for men – released in 28 cinemas across the Emirates on April 10 and reached the top three in the box-office. According to Egypt’s cinema news website Elcinema, the drama film earned $141,399 in its first week in theatres.

Meanwhile, the head of Egypt's censorship board has resigned after the country's prime minister overruled his decision to allow the film to be screened.

Ahmed Awad, undersecretary to the culture minister and head of the censorship authority, told The Associated Press that he had submitted his resignation in response to Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab's decision to stop the film from being shown. The censorship board is meant to be an independent body that gives the final say on whether a movie can be seen by Egyptian audiences. Mahlab had reportedly taken the decision to withdrawn the film from for containing “excessive use of sexual innuendo.”

More on this story: Egypt's censorship board head resigns in film spat

Haifa has received major criticism for taking on the role as not only does it feature scenes of an underage boy becoming infatuated, but her character is also raped.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree that Halawet Rooh has been banned? Or should filmmakers and artists be free to express themselves? Tweet us at @YahooEntsME.

Halawet Rooh trailer: