Sudan: Danish movie to be next Mohammed cartoons?

Sudan: Danish movie to be next Mohammed cartoons?

Sudan is accusing the upcoming Danish movie by Susanne Bier of being in the same class as the Muhammmed cartoons. Sudan's government are upset at the Danish movie Civilization ("Hævnen", literally 'the revenge'), which director Susanne Bier is shooting in Kenya and Denmark. The movie is an extension of the anti-Islam Dutch movie "Fitna" and the Danish Muhammed cartoons, says the Sudanese foreign ministry.

Susanne Bier's movie is based on teh war in Sudan's Darfur region, and follows the trail from refugee camps in Sudan to life in a town in South Funen.

Sudan's foreign ministry says in a press release that the people responsible for "Civilization" intend to "represent nonexistent conditions in Darfur" and that the movie represents a "new step of the hostile forces who work to prolong the war in Darfur."

The spokesperson for Sudan's foreign ministry, Muawiya Osman Khalid, says that the 'production of this racist movie should be seen as a new extension of the notorious 'Fitna' movie and the cartoons which insult the prophet Muhammed," the official Sudanese news agency Suna reported Tuesday.

Khalid says that the Danish film crew shot in the Kukobi refugee camp in Kenya, where, according to Khalid, the crew duped the refugees to get them to play war victims from Darfur for a price of 2000-5000 Kenyan Shillings.

The spokesperson for the Sudanese foreign ministry says that they residents of the Kukobi camp launched a campaign against the movie.

Actors Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen and Swedish Mikael Persbrandt appear in the film. The Danish Movie Institute gave the movie 7 million kroner, and it is expected in movie theaters this August.

Source: Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish)