Madrid, Spain, Oct 7, 2009 / 20:34 pm

Just days before the release of the new movie “Agora” by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, civil rights organizations are denouncing the film for promoting hatred of Christians and reinforcing false clichés about the Catholic Church.
 
The president of the Religious Anti-Defamation Observatory, Antonio Alonso Marcos, has sent an open letter to Amenabar, also know for his pro-euthanasia film “The Sea Inside,” denouncing the film’s anti-Christian bias.
 
“The reason for my letter is to make you realize something that you already know but have dismissed as unimportant: your film is going to awaken hatred against Christians in today’s society.  You present a biased view of the relationship between science and the Church, between faith and reason.  It has been pointed out to you directly and indirectly, and you have used a somewhat vague excuse and looked the other way,” Marcos wrote.
 
Marcos reminded Amenabar of the comments made by people who have already seen a private screening of the film and which Amenabar himself echoed during a television interview.
 
During the interview he said, “At the end of the film, people sitting near me said Christians are bunch of SOBs.”
 
“This has been and will be the reaction of the public in general, and you know it,” Marcos said in his letter.  “Is that what you were looking for? To throw manure on an institution that today helps millions of human beings to live and enjoy life to the fullest?” he asked the director.
 
In response to Amenabar’s statements that the film “is not against Christians but rather against those who set off bombs and kill in the name of God, that is, against religious fanatics,” Marcos wondered why the director has not recreated situations like those that take place in the Middle East.
 
“Agora,” which stars Rachel Weisz, is an epic film that recounts the story of Hipatia, a pagan woman who was killed for her political beliefs. According to some Spanish media, the film has yet to find a distributor in the United States because of its strong anti-Christian bias.