Entertainment.ie
September 25, 2016
The film has a UK distributor, Altitude and is set to be released over there on October 14th. However as we reported earlier this year, an Irish distributor has yet to be confirmed and it's looking likely that none will be.
The main stumbling block seems to be Ireland's blasphemy laws and in particular the The Defamation Act of 2009. According to that piece of legislation, any "publication or utterance of blasphemous matter" against any religion is an offence and carries a fine of €25,000.
The Act does allow for a defence of work that has "genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value", which this documentary most likely will have. However it looks like there aren't any distributors willing to take a chance on the film for fear that they could be found to be in breach of the legislation.
Alex Gibney's 2015 Scientology documentary, Going Clear had similar problems and did not secure an Irish theatrical release.
We've contacted the UK distributors for confirmation on this story and will update once we have it.
UPDATE:
Graham Spurling, the owner of Movies@Dundrum, Movies@Swords, Movies@Gorey and SGC Dungarvan has confirmed on Twitter that the film will not get an Irish release and has suggested that the blasphemy law may be to blame though he cannot speak for the distributors.
http://entertainment.ie/cinema/news/It-looks-like-Louis-Therouxs-My-Scientology-Movie-wont-get-an-Irish-release-due-to-blasphemy-laws/385722.htm
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