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Acropolis Museum decides to leave film of priests hacking Acropolis

Aug 5, 2009, 10:52 GMT

Athens - The new Acropolis Museum decided to leave a short film, depicting long-robed Christians hacking away at the Acropolis, uncut despite angry protests by the powerful Greek Orthodox Church, reports said Wednesday.

Just weeks after its opening, the new museum released an informative short film to visitors about the history of the 5th century BC Parthenon temple which shows figures in long robes hacking away at the monument.

The short, 1 minute and 40 second film by prominent Greek-French director Costas-Gavras sparked outrage in the powerful church, despite the fact that early Christians tore down statues and temples in an effort to eradicate paganism.

'Mr. Gavras clarified that in these scenes he did not show or mean to say that the destruction was done by priests but by people of that time,' the museum's director, Dimitris Pandermanlis was quoted by the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini as saying.

'The informative film will continue to be shown.'

Gavras had strongly protested calls by the church to have the film censored, saying he wanted his name removed if the original version was altered.

The museum's decision to leave the film uncut came after the Greek Helsinki Monitor, a nongovernmental organisation, filed an injunction against the museum, demanding that visitors to the museum had the right to the director's uncensored version.