EXCLUSIVE — Controversial Cuban filmmaker Jorge Molina's hyper-sexual fantasy film FEROZZ WILD RIDING HOOD has caught the eye, and razor, of British censors. But the film was not being eyed for pruning for a general public television broadcast or whitewashed as part of its theatrical distribution, but rather in advance of its British premiere at Raindance Film Festival. In fact, the film has been dropped from public screenings altogether by the festival, who claims its hand was forced by authorities at the Westminster City Council. [The page announcing the screening of Ferozz is still on the festival's server ]



According to the festival's founder Elliot Grove, the Council’s decision is ‘’regrettable, but that we have been forced to accept this censorship. Ferozz Wild Riding Hood is a powerful film which the Festival feels,  deserves to be seen by adults living in the UK.”

Set against the lush forests of Cuba, Ferozz is a twisted re-imagining of the Little Red Riding Hood classic folktale. The film focuses on a dysfunctional family lead by a cruel and perverted grandmother and the sexual awakenings of a young adolescent that plays out as an excessively-grotesque pantomime where sexual perversion is stylized, and black magic and gruesome violence are set off against notions of sin and chastity.



The scene the Council found particularly objectionable in the Cuban-Costa Rican co-production, depicts  little Red Riding playfully masturbating with a puppy. Asked if he would remove the tableaux in question from the film - now notoriously known as the 'puppy love' scene (screen-capture show below) - to avoid being withdrawan from the festival, Molina blankly refused ‘’on the grounds that the scene portrays  a sexual innocence which is a universal experience.’’ The film's English premiere was scheduled to take place on October 5th.

One Eyed Films, the film's sales representative added that the censorship decision is “as despotic and as a 'nanny state' as the cruel grandmother in the film. After all, the film has been shown to European audiences at different festivals, and it seems far too puritanical to ban the film screening from public viewing.”

FOR THE RECORD: "Jorge Molina's FEROZZ WILD RIDING HOOD is a masterfully-shocking hybrid of horror and fantasy and an instant classic in the genre of Latin horror." — LATIN HORROR

Molina, who is a professor at the acclaimed Escuela Internacional de CIne y Television (EICTV) in Havana, Cuba, has gained cult status in his native country over the years for his unique and uncompromising cinematic vision.

Raindance is offering industry only screenings today of Ferroz that are closed to the public at Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus.