Banned Film News

To Kill a War Machine is a 2025 UK documentary by Hannan Majid, Richard York
Starring Huda Ammori, Richard Barnard and Shezana Hafiz

Originally uncut and BBFC 15 rated for a 2025 cinema release, but was banned a month later following the UK government ban of the campaign group Palestine Action.

Summary Notes

A documentary about the activist group Palestine Action.

Versions

banned run: 78:17s pal: 75:09s		UK: Banned by BBFC 2025 Rainbow Collective cinema release (rated 04/07/2025) The BBFC commented: To Kill a War Machine is a British documentary about the group Palestine Action, who were proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 with effect from 5 July 2025. The film was originally classified 15 uncut for cinema release on 5 June 2025, before the group was proscribed. Given the proscription of the organisation, and in accordance with legal advice, further distribution or exhibition of To Kill a War Machine is likely to constitute an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. As such, the classification for this film was revoked on 4 July 2025. BBFC Guidelines and policy state that we will not classify material which is in breach of the criminal law. The film makers, Rainbow Collective, also took down an online release, saying in a statement: Following the vote in the House of Commons on 2nd July 2025 to proscribe Palestine Action, Rainbow Collective have taken the difficult decision to temporarily take down the online version of our film, To Kill a War Machine and authorise no further screenings of the film until further notice. As filmmakers with 20 years of experience documenting movements for social justice around the world, we produced To Kill a War Machine independently, within the law and had it certified for cinema release by the BBFC. The film itself does not become illegal, as it was produced and edited prior to proscription. However, future distribution of anything which could be interpreted as showing sympathy for or inviting support for a proscribed organisation will become illegal. It has always been Rainbow Collective's intention to tell critical and truthful stories with integrity. We never want our documentaries to expose our audiences or communities to danger from the state and, as such, the film will remain unavailable until we have absolute legal assurance that it can be distributed within the law.
uncut run: 78:17s pal: 75:09s		UK: Uncut and BBFC 15 rated for images of real dead bodies and injury, criminal behaviour: 2025 Rainbow Collective cinema release (rated 05/06/2025 but banned from 04/07/2025)

Reality Killers is a 2005 Italy horror by Alessandro Capone, Pablo Dammicco, Volfango De Biasi
Starring Valter D'Errico and Cristina Puccinelli

Banned by the BBFC for 2024 video. The US release is uncut and MPA Unrated.

Summary Notes

We follow perverse serial killer 'The Sculptor' as he parades the viewer through his extensive collection of snuff videotapes. What follows is a series of candid vignettes of horrific intensity which will test the nerves of even the most hardened of horror fans.

Versions

uncut run: 75m pal: 72m		US: Uncut and MPAA Unrated for: 2025 Treasured Films R0 Blu-ray at US Amazon #ad released on 10th June 2025
banned run: 75m pal: 72m		UK: Banned by BBFC 2024 Treasured Films Limited Edition R0 Blu-ray The BBFC commented: Reality Killers is a horror film in which a man obsessed with violent snuff videos, featuring people being abused, tortured and killed, goes on to commit his own similar crimes. Reality Killers consists of a series of short vignettes in which people, including women and children, are killed. In some cases, acts of sadistic violence follow or involve sexual behaviour and nudity. The protagonist acts as a narrator, relishing in the violence and endorsing the actions of the killers. Women, in particular, are portrayed as either sexual objects to be abused or as predatory killers themselves. Potentially harmful attitudes, such as the suggestion that victims and perpetrators enjoy violence, and that women are presented primarily as sex objects or predatory killers, are not clearly challenged, nor is there a narrative counterbalance to the sustained focus on sadism. As a last resort, the BBFC may find content unsuitable for classification, in line with the objective of preventing non-trivial harm risks to potential viewers and, through their behaviour, to society. In our Classification Guidelines we state that this may occur where a central concept is unacceptable, such as a sustained focus on rape, other non-consensual sexually violent behaviour or sadistic violence. The guidelines also state that we consider whether the availability of the material to the age group concerned would run contrary to broad public opinion. The BBFC considered whether the film's issues could be adequately addressed through intervention such as cuts. As Reality Killers consists almost entirely of scenes of sadistic violence and abuse, we determined that cuts would not effectively address these issues. The film, when taken as a whole, transgresses BBFC Classification Guidelines and policy, and we believe that its classification even at 18 would run contrary to broad public opinion. The BBFC therefore found Reality Killers to be unsuitable for classification. : Mike Comments Reality Killers has been made available in the UK via import from the US. I got mine today and watched it, so here are a few comments: Most importantly, this is the tamest film the BBFC have rejected in a very long time. I'm struggling to remember a single shot which, on the face of it, would breach BBFC guidelines. Quite a lot of characters get killed but none of them in an especially gruesome way, and the special effects aren't up to much so it's hard to take seriously. The BBFC rejection statement mentions child killings, but there's only one and it's totally non-sexualised and non-sadistic. The killings of women have less effect than they might in that they're often shot in low light or with shaky camerawork, and usually we see the aftermath rather than the act itself. One puzzling aspect is that several of the sexually-motivated killings are committed by women against men. The BBFC line on this has long been that such scenes don't pose a meaningful harm risk because there is no research evidence that such scenes are harmful to viewers, even if sexualised. The last time such a scene was cut was in Neighbour (2009). So we might have expected the BBFC to go easy on those scenes at least. Not so - the rejection statement says that women are presented primarily as sex objects or predatory killers. So even when women are committing murders the BBFC still condemns the filmmakers. Very strange. The BBFC have often had problems in the past with films which fail to include enough narrative to tie together their scenes of sexual and non-sexual violence. Films in which we just see the killer murdering people with no wider narrative, explanation of why they kill, whether they get punished for their crimes, etc. are often viewed with suspicion. (Hate Crime and Grotesque are good examples of that). The problem that Reality Killers has is that it's a film almost without narrative. We assumed initially that it was directed by Alessandro Capone, but it turns out that although he did shoot one section, his role was basically as chaperone to some inexperienced young directors who were being given their first chance in the industry. So several people shot different parts of this film, and the only connection between them was that they featured snuff killers. Hence there is no single killer who commits all the murders. In many scenes it's not even clear which of the murderers we've met so far is doing the killing. The film's producer tried to introduce an element of continuity by filming some scenes with a fat man in a mask and interspersing them with the rest of the footage to make it look like he is the killer. But it doesn't really work, and there are just several killers none of whom we get to know. I think it's the lack of context and narrative that was the BBFC's main problem. If you go in to this film having read that you're about to see a depraved snuff killer's home video collection and assume it must be like the August Underground Trilogy or Murder Set Pieces, you're going to be extremely disappointed.