Lady of Heaven: Executive producer of film cancelled after Sheffield protest says he's received death threats

Malik Shlibak, 30, executive producer of The Lady of Heaven - which Cineworld removed from its theatres on June 7 - said activists told him "I'm going to kill you" on Twitter.

The film was pulled from all Cineworld theatres following protests in a number of towns and cities. This included in Sheffield, after which a video emerged of the venue’s manager telling the crowd they would be cancelling all screenings.

Malk Shilbak said the massive controversy surrounding its screenings had been "brilliant" for the film and had brought in "huge audiences".

He said: "I've had death threats sent to me, to be very frank with you, I've had death threats for the last five years.

"It's nothing new because I'm involved in this type of work where these radicals don't what you to speak about anything they don't agree with.

"I don't worry about it - it's just empty threats.

"But I have had threats on Twitter now, being called an ‘infidel’ and with people saying ‘I'm going to kill you’ and all this sort of thing."

The Lady of Heaven, directed by Eli King, is an interpretation of the story of Lady Fatima, Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, and is intertwined with that of a young Iraqi orphan in the modern day.

However, it has led to protests by members of the Muslim community in Sheffield, Liverpool, Bradford and other places, who say Lady of Heaven ‘disrespects’ the prophet by putting his ‘face’ on screen, while others disagree with the interpretation of history and the depiction of a murder by Islamic State militants in the opening of the film.

Although it is being screened nationwide following its release on June 3, Cineworld announced on June 7 it would cancel all showings of the film following the protests.

In the video outside Sheffield’s Cineworld, the manager tells the crowd: “I am the manager of this cinema and I am just confirming that this film is cancelled tonight and for the rest of this week. We will not be showing the film.

"We value you all as our customers. We’re in the heart of this community as a local effort. It wasn’t our decision to show this film, it came from above. We totally agree with what you’re saying and we are not prepared to show this film at this cinema.”

Throughout the announcement, the crowd broke out into loud responses and cheers, with others shouting to quiet down so the manager could be heard.

Another video of the protest shared online shows a public speaker addressing the crowd on a megaphone, saying: “Just to make the wider audience understand. We are very offended, we are very insulted, and we have a right not to be insulted.

“You talk about freedom of speech, but where does your freedom of speech go? It goes to criticising your policies, and it goes to making critical analysis of your version of history.”

In a TV interview, Health Secretary Sajid Javid added he was ‘very concerned’ after Muslim protesters forced Cineworld to drop the ‘blasphemous’ film, saying: “We don't have blasphemy laws. That would be a dangerous road to go down."