The film “Joker” has attracted both admiration and fierce criticism. But in two cases in Greece, the police was called as minors were seen in movie theaters watching the R18-rated movie.

In the first case the prosecutor instructed an investigation, following complaints from two women working for the Ministry of Culture who happened to be in the movie theater, and in the second case, according to a post on social media and eyewitness reports, was related to a family disputes , where a teenager’s mother reported that she had not given her consent for her child to watch the film with the father…

On Monday morning, the Culture Minister Lina Mendoni explained that the actions of the two officials of the Ministry of Culture were wrong. “They did not ask or inform the ministry’s hierarchy. They are officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who apparently acted on their own as they did not receive any such order”, Ms. Mendoni said.

“They didn’t inform anyone. They exceeded their powers and the criminal code procedures will be initiated. It is not possible to create such a social problem evoking your employee status. They had no jurisdiction to suppress, they had no jurisdiction to call the police. All of them were in excess of their responsibilities. I can’t understand what led them to do so”, Ms Mendoni added.

As she explained, “both ladies belong to the Directorate General of Modern Culture. They are members of a committee that examines the appropriateness of films. The committee is consultative and what the institutional framework says is that they have a right of scrutiny solely within their responsibilities, that is to say in their advisory role. Checking does not mean calling the police”.

“I strongly condemn their actions”, Ms Mendoni said and announced that “we will take all measures to discipline them”.