Luca Guadagnino said on Saturday at the Marrakech Film Festival that he'll be 'happy' if people download "Queer" in Turkey where it's been banned.

Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming film Queer has been banned in Turkey for being “too provocative,” a move that Guadagnino said was done by those who wish to tarnish the powers of cinema. Guadagnino spoke about the move while at the jury press conference for the Marrakech Film Festival (via Variety).

I know the story of Queer well — the book itself, the circumstances of it being written, and the mythology that preceded the publication of it, the “lost” William Burroughs manuscript. And so I was truly dreading seeing Luca Guadagnino’s $53 million Queer,

Despite his latest film being censored, Luca Guadagnino remains cautiously optimistic about the power of filmmaking. After a screening of Queer was banned in Istanbul earlier this month, the Oscar-nominated director vowed to “fight any institution that wants to tarnish” cinema while speaking at the Marrakech International Film Festival,

Director Luca Guadagnino, whose latest film "Queer" was banned in Turkey last month, called out authorities for "obtuse censorship" and pledged to fight the institution that wants to tarnish the "inevitable powers" of cinema.

Authorities in Turkey banned a screening of director Luca Guadagnino's Queer at the recent Mubi Fest Istanbul after they considered the film excessively provocative. Guadagnino hit out at the authorities at the 2024 Marrakech Film Festival on November 30,