It was earlier in November that the organizers of a film festival in Istanbul announced that local authorities had stopped the screening of Guadagnino's film – the festival's opening film – with the motivation that it could "disturb the order".
The organizers of the festival, the streaming platform Mubi, then decided to cancel the entire festival just hours before it was to open.
"Queer" is based on William S Burroughs' novel of the same name and follows Lee, played by Daniel Craig, an unhappy, drug-addicted homosexual man who drives around in post-war Mexico City in search of love.
During a press conference on Saturday at the film festival in Marrakech, Morocco, where Luca Guadagnino is the jury chairman, the director said:
I really hope they believe that the film's form contributes to social collapse, because that would mean that my faith in the film's power is correct and not deceptive.
But it's a blunt censorship in a world where you can download the film, he adds.
