In 1992, the Tobacco Advertising Act was passed in Australia, banning any message that might induce or persuade people to smoke or use tobacco products. Then the rate is reduced smoking in Victoria, combined with a second strong law to reduce the widespread harms caused by tobacco, led to a total indoor smoking ban in 2007. Australia has become the most expensive country in the world for smokers, with a pack costing US$26 for an Australian wallet compared to Greece, where the equivalent fee is US$4.43. This difference persists even when the real purchasing power of income is taken into account.

Recently, Angelos Francis’ film “Happiness”, which tells about the life of Eftikhia Papagiannopoulou, opened the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne. The organizing committee of the conference decided to censor the main poster of the film, removing the cigarette and half of the fingers of the actress playing the main role, as well as the expression “I lived my life the way I wanted.” Thus, as postmodern judges, the members of the organizing committee conveyed their own message to the recipients of the poster:
“smoking his cut hand.” In Greece, there were no posters for this particular film without a cigarette, because the ritual of smoking for
Papagiannopoulou was a building block of her personality, a quintessential reference point, an integral part of her life – and the film is about that, her own life in a certain era when there was no smoking ban. Smoking was also a working tool for Papagiannopulu, helping her to write her texts on packaging many times.

The discussion that flared up after the censorship of the poster exceeded even the film itself in terms of public interest in the media. Many questions arose: Did the censors get permission to do so from the creators who held the copyright? Only the owners of the copyright and/or intellectual property of the original work have the right to prepare or authorize another person to create a new version of the work, especially if there is a change in the narrative relating to the work itself. Did they know that smoking was part of the identity of the legendary Eftichia Papagiannopoulou? If there are no legal reasons justifying the removal of the image
cigarettes, the decision to ruin the poster was wrong. This intervention served as a warning to the wider Greek-Australian community and viewers, who are well aware of the significance of the cigarette in the film.

Besides, recent vandalism of the statue Prime Ministers Ben Chifley and John Curtin (based on a photograph taken in 1945) in Canberra suddenly found Chifley without his signature pipe. However, restoration work was quickly completed, restoring the statue to its original appearance, with no doubt as to whether and how the former prime minister’s smoking could affect modern society. The difference in reaction to the medium, the message, and the people involved in it is striking.

Can art be a haven in which we can still feel free, or have we lost the capacity for critical, independent thinking under the weight of the choices that governments make “for our good”? The discussion doesn’t seem to end there…

Steve Bakalis is a former professor at Victoria University Melbourne.

Despina Limniotaki is a social psychologist.