A group of protestors are outside the Village East City Cinemas on Second Avenue at East 12th Street this afternoon, per this photo via @RTSNYC.
The film in question is "Paradise: Faith," from Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes recap:
In "PARADISE: Faith" Ulrich Seidl explores what it means to bear the cross. For Anna Maria, an X-ray technician, paradise lies with Jesus. She devotes her vacation to missionary work, so that Austria may be brought back to the path of virtue. On her daily pilgrimage through Vienna, she goes from door to door, carrying a foot-high statue of the Virgin Mary. One day, after years of absence, her husband, an Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair, comes home. Hymns and prayers are now joined by fighting. "PARADISE: Faith" recounts the stations of the cross of a marriage and the longing for love.
(Read the review in the Times here.)
According to Wikipedia, "the film has been named as a favourite of director John Waters, who presented the film as his annual pick within the Maryland Film Festival 2013."
There was a similar protest of the film in Hollywood this past week. According to a blog by the executive director of America Needs Fatima:
The movie Paradise: Faith, by Ulrich Seidl, is a terrible pornographic attack on Jesus’ crucifix.
EXTREME CAUTION
The NY Times (8/22/13) reports: Speaking of the main character in the film, “…Later in the movie, she m*****bates with the same crucifix.” [redaction ours: Ed.] Other press reports contribute… A woman…“m*****bates using a crucifix.” “it is right to show her m********ing using a cross, as she is making love to Jesus,” responds the director Ulrich Seidl when asked about it.
The protest consisted in praying the fifteen decades of the rosary, some other prayers (especially the St. Michael prayer) and the Litany of Our Lady. Our people spread out single to double file to cover the entire front of the cinema.
We were very happy and consoled to be able to offer this public act of reparation against such a terrible pornographic attack on the Holy Crucifix of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Meanwhile, there haven't been any protests over "We're the Millers," also playing at Village East City Cinemas, for being billed as a "comedy."
[EVG reader John]
