Sri Lankan films banned at Nepal fest

Nepal has banned the screening of three Sri Lankan films at the Film South Asia (FSA), a film festival focused on documentaries, upon a request of the Sri Lankan government, an official statement said Thursday.

The FSA had scheduled to screen "Broken", "The Story of One" and "No Fire Zone" -- all by Sri Lankan filmmakers -- at the festival that kicked off Thursday, but was forced to pull all of them out after Sri Lankan government urged to stop the screenings, Xinhua reported citing an FSA statement.

According to Nayantara Gurung Kakshapati of FSA, the organisers received the orders from Nepal's ministry of information to stop the screening, but no reasons were given for the move.

As a protest, the FSA will screen the movies to a private audience at a different venue Saturday. The films, however, will remain in contention for the award, which carries a cash prize of $2,000 for the winner, Kakshapati added.

FSA is a biennial film festival that has been taking place in Kathmandu since 2007 with a goal to popularise documentaries so that they entertain, inform and changes live.

A total of 55 films from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Afghanistan and Nepal have been selected for this year's festival out of 388 entries.