DUTCH DIRECTOR MURDERED
Prolific Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, known in America for the release of his 1994 phone-sex drama 06 under the title 1-900, was killed earlier today in Amsterdam. He had been receiving death threats following the television screening of his latest short film, Submission, a drama about a Muslim woman coerced into a violent marriage, raped by a relative, and then brutally punished for her adultery. The film was co-written by a Dutch right-wing politician who renounced her Muslim faith and now is a critic of the religion.
The film enraged Muslim groups after its airing and the filmmaker has been under police protection. A 26-year-old man of Dutch-Moroccan nationality has been arrested for the crime. According to witnesses, the man rode up to Van Gogh’s car on a bicycle, shot the director as he exited the car, and the waited by the body to make sure he was dead. He then fled to a park where he was apprehended.
According to the Associated Press article linked to above, Van Gogh shrugged off the death threats on a recent radio interview, calling the movie “the best protection I could have.”
