Opposition lawmakers on Monday will show a controversial film about the 2010 sinking of a South Korean naval corvette at the National Assembly amid protests against the discontinuance of its screening by a major film distributor.

Democratic Party lawmaker Rep. Choi Min-hee said they decided to screen “Project Cheonan Ship” to protest “external pressure intervening in the creative arts.”

Megabox, the only conglomerate-sized film distributor to initially screen the documentary, decided to take the 75-minute film out of its theaters after “unidentified individuals” made phone calls saying they could not guarantee the safety of audiences if the movie continued to be shown.

“Project Cheonan Ship” questions the South Korean government findings that accuse North Korea of sinking the ROKS Cheonan and thereby killing 46 South Korean sailors. Hypotheses such as the ship colliding with a reef or an unidentified submarine are discussed in the feature film.

The movie was released to the public earlier this month, after the Uijeongbu District Court had denied an injunction from families of the deceased sailors and the ship’s former captain Choi Won-il, requesting that the film not be screened because it defamed the memories of those killed in the sinking.

(hj257@heraldcorp.com)