Francis Lee, the director of the film "God's Own Country," recanted his callfor a boycott of Amazon for appearing to censor gay sex scenes from his 2017 film, stating that after investigation, he discovered that the film was not censored by Amazon, but was instead censored by the film's U.S. distributor, Samuel Goldwyn Films.
"After investigation God’s Own Country was not censored by @PrimeVideo (Amazon USA) but by the US distributor @GoldwynFilms who butchered the streaming version without consultation to get more ‘revenue’," Lee tweeted Wednesday. "The rental version of God’s Own Country on @PrimeVideo is the correct version of my film."
Lee's tweets marked a reversal from those he posted earlier Wednesday, in which he accused Amazon of removing gay sex scenes from its film and stated that the version available on the platform is not the movie he "intended or made."
"Dear friends in USA, God’s Own Country appears to have been censored on @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime)," Lee tweeted Wednesday. "Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon Prime."
A British drama starring Josh O'Connor and Alec Secăreanu, "God's Own Country" explores the relationship between a sheep farmer and a Romanian migrant worker. While it received widespread acclaim and was even heralded as a "Yorkshire Brokeback Mountain," according to critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was banned in some Arab and Eastern European countries for its sex scenes.
Neither Amazon nor Samuel Goldwyn films responded to NBC News' request for comment regarding its alleged censorship of the movie, however, reviews of the movie on its site appeared to corroborate Lee's claim that those who watch the movie via Amazon Prime are presented with an abridged version.
"The movie itself is a good story; I am just disappointed in Amazon Prime for editing out certain scenes," read one review dated May 16. "Shame on you for censorship."
"This version on Amazon Prime is missing the graphic scenes, which really takes away from the film," read another, dated May 6.
This latest accusation of censorship coincided with a long-standing charge against Amazon for offering anti-LGBTQ content on its platforms. Last year, the company removed books about conversion therapy, which refers to efforts to change an LGBTQ person’s gender identity or sexual orientation and has been condemned by nearly every major health association, in response to global activism. And in 2018, the company removed a gay conversion therapy app from a religious group called Living Hope Ministries, which included anti-gay podcasts, articles and devotionals, following complaints from LGBTQ advocacy organizations.
