Salò (120 Days of Sodom) (film)
Date: 1975
Region: Australia
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Film Video
Artist: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Confronting Bodies: New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification
Dates of Action: March 1997
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Description of Artwork: Salo, also known as 120 Days of Sodom, is a film about religious and government officials who indulge in vivid baccanalian rituals, such as sundry sexual fetishes and genital mutilation, with their constituencies following the allied invasion of fascist Italy during World War II.
The Incident: The film has been banned in New Zealand since its release in 1975. Their have been attempts to show the film in 1976 and 1993, but they have been denied by the Office of Film and Literature Classification.
Results of Incident: New Zealand customs officers siezed the film while it was destined to show at the International Film Festival at the Paramount Theater in Wellington.
Source: Index on Censorship, 3/97