MUMBAI: A Thai film that features gay sex and confrontational politics has been banned from the World Film Festival of Bangkok (WFF).

The film This Area Is Under Quarantine, directed by Thunska Pansittivorakul, was scheduled to be screened next week at the 7th WFF.

According to rules, a festival organiser has to submit synopsis of all films to a sub-committee the job of whom is to consider which films on the list need to be referred to the main rating committee and which films can be screened without ratings.

The sub-committee, attached to the Thai Ministry of Culture, judged that:This Area Is Under Quarantine needed to be rated and instructed the festival organiser to go to the rating committee. But it was said that the main rating committee had argued that the festival didn‘t present a proper document for the film and couldn‘t consider it.

Meanwhile, the sub-committee couldn‘t re-consider the film either, because the law doesn‘t allow it such a function, thus the film was considered as banned.

In September, the state-funded Bangkok International Film Festival showed more controversial films such as Antichrist and Dogtooth without censoring, though the organiser imposed its own 20-plus rating.