Scent of the Lotus Pond: Censoring art or protecting culture?

Groundviews was able to obtain footage of a scene the Public Performance Board of Sri Lanka seeks to completely remove from Sathyajith Maitipe’s film Scent of the Lotus Pond. In a review of the film on Groundviews recently, Prassana Ratnayake (Protecting Culture or Fishing in Troubled Waters?) avers:

The Sri Lankan Public Performance Board operates under the Ministry of Defence. Their brief is to keep an eye on anything they considered might damage Culture or interfere with National Security. It strikes me as ironically amusing that this authority thinks it can protect national culture and security by banning several sex scenes from a film. Whose culture are they trying to protect? Who’s security? The fantasy that the Public Performance Board is protecting us from insidious influences by banning the creative contribution of an astute filmmaker reveals the macabre contradictions that are destroying our country. With the enormous damage to human beings and to culture in Sri Lanka unfolding daily, the two orders of destruction somehow do not compute.

Take a look at the clip in question here. Please note that this content is not work safe. There is also some jarring feedback during playback – please make sure your volume is suitably low to avoid damaging your speakers and hearing.