Los Angeles - Elton John on Friday
criticised Russia's reported censorship of gay sex scenes in
the new movie musical based on his life, "Rocketman," calling
the decision "cruelly unaccepting of the love between two
people."
John and the makers of "Rocketman," which depicts the
warts-and-all rise to fame of the gay British musician, issued a
statement after Russian media reported that scenes involving gay
sex and drug taking had been cut from a screening in Russia.
"We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to
pander to local laws and censor 'Rocketman' for the Russian
market," John and the filmmakers said.
"That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes,
denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was
intended, is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live
in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love
between two people," their statement added.
The English-language Moscow Times on Friday quoted a
Russian film critic who had seen the film at its May 16 world
premiere in Cannes as saying that several scenes,
totaling about 5 minutes, had disappeared from the Russian
version.
They include a male sex scene featuring actor Taron Egerton,
who plays John, and a photograph during the closing credits in
which the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" singer is pictured with
his real-life husband David Furnish, who was a producer on the
film, film critic Yegor Moskvitin was quoted as saying.
The movie, which has won warm reviews, began its worldwide
rollout earlier this week.
John, 72, a prominent gay rights campaigner, has previously
spoken out against a 2013 law banning the dissemination of "gay
propaganda" among young Russians.
In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be
willing to meet with John. Although the singer played a concert
in Moscow in May 2016, no meeting with Putin took place.