Ira Sachs Calls ‘Passages’ NC-17 Rating ‘Censorship’: MUBI to Release the Provocative Drama Unrated

Sundance breakout film “Passages” has received a NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association, which writer-director Ira Sachs has called a form of “cultural censorship” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Distributor MUBI has confirmed to IndieWire that it will release the film unrated in NY and LA theaters on August 4 as intended, with a wider rollout to follow.

The Times first reported that “Passages” obtained the rare MPA classification, which could limit how many theaters “Passages” can play in.

The film follows queer director Tomas (Franz Rogowski), who begins a love affair with a young schoolteacher, Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) outside of his marriage to Martin (Ben Whishaw). The film has numerous sex scenes, including a frank extended sequence involving Tomas and Martin filmed in one take.

Sachs said he never considered editing the film to obtain an R rating, and that the decision to reject the NC-17 was unanimous with MUBI.

“It’s so 1950s that this still exists,” Sachs said of the rating that states no one under the age of 17 can be admitted to the screening, even with a parent or guardian.

Sachs continued, “We’re talking about a [ratings] board that is not visible, that doesn’t make its rules known, that exists in silence. We’re talking about a select group of people who have a certain bent, which seems anti-gay, anti-progress, anti-sex — a lot of things which I’m not.”

He added, “We hunger for movies that are in any proximity to our own experience, and to find a movie like this, which is then shut out, is, to me, depressing and reactionary. It’s really about a form of cultural censorship that is quite dangerous, particularly in a culture which is already battling, in such extreme ways, the possibility of LGBT imagery to exist.”

A spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association assured that the NC-17 rating was not due to the characters’ sexual orientation.

“The MPA’s Classification and Rating Administration rates movies based on their content — what happens on screen and how it is depicted,” the statement in the Times read. “The sexual orientation of a character or characters is not considered as part of the rating process.”

In a joint statement shared with IndieWire, representatives for MUBI and the film said, “We unexpectedly received an NC-17 rating, which may limit the film’s ability to play in some cinemas nationwide. We are deeply disappointed by the MPA’s decision, and MUBI has officially rejected this NC-17 rating. MUBI remains committed to releasing ‘Passages’ nationwide in its original version as the filmmaker intended, with our full backing, unrated and uncut.”

To the Times, MUBI also said, “Frank and thoughtful portrayals of sex are essential to cinematic storytelling and in service of representation more broadly. An NC-17 rating suggests the film’s depiction of sex is explicit or gratuitous, which it is not, and that mainstream audiences will be offended by this portrayal, which we believe is also false.”

Sachs added, “I needed to be reminded that the body was not off-limits to cinema. I’m just so happy that that scene was as strong and powerful as it seems to be, because that was my intention, which was to have a moment in the film in which we don’t hide from the impact of sex on our lives and what it means to us as individuals,” Sachs said. “There’s no untangling the film from what it is. It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”