CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - DIRECTOR REYGADAS DEFENDS CONTROVERSIAL SEX SCENES

Director CARLOS REYGADAS has attacked critics of his new film BATTLE IN HEAVEN's controversial sex scenes - insisting he was striving to portray realistic love-making, not pornography.

The audience booed and hissed at the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL screening of the Mexican movie on Sunday (15MAY05) because they were disgusted by scenes featuring two obese child kidnappers having sex, and a teenage girl performing oral sex on a middle-aged man.

But Reygadas - who caused controversy at the 2002 Cannes festival over a sex scene in JAPON featuring an elderly woman - says he included the shocking content to subvert traditional movie romance.

He says, "Porn aims to sexually excite the viewer. That's not what this is about.

"It was to create a sense that this goes much further than simple sex. There's a mystery behind it.

"Most people look more like them than the beautiful people you see in advertisements."

The film has been short-listed for the PALME D'OR prize at this year's (05) Cannes film festival.