Hotel Mumbai
Kerry Monteen / Bleecker Street

"The decision was made to suspend the film out of respect for a country in mourning," Icon Film Distribution said in a statement

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March 19, 2019 01:26 PM

Screenings of Hotel Mumbai, a dramatic retelling of the 2008 terror attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, have been suspended from theaters in New Zealand as the country continues to heal from a terror attack of its own.

The film, starring Armie Hammer and Dev Patel, was temporarily pulled from all theaters in the country after a mass shooting at a pair of mosques in Christchurch Friday left 50 people dead.

Hotel Mumbai’s local distributor, Icon Film Distribution, announced the move in a statement to local outlet NewsHub.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

“Following the recent terror attacks in New Zealand, Icon Film Distribution have announced the suspension of the film Hotel Mumbai from all cinemas in New Zealand,” the statement read.

“After consultation with local exhibition partners, the decision was made to suspend the film out of respect for a country in mourning.”

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The statement claimed that the film’s advertising had been pulled as soon as news of the attacks broke, but that it was still being screened over the weekend.

NewsHub reports the film came in second at the weekend box office behind Captain Marvel.

Ambulances parked outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand
Mark Baker/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Pakistani militants took the Mumbai hotel under siege in 2008 as part of a four-day string of attacks across the city that killed at least 174 people.

On Friday, New Zealand police announced on Twitter that 41 people were killed at the Masjid al Noor mosque, while 7 died at the Linwood Masjid mosque on Linwood Avenue. An additional one person died from their injuries in a hospital.

The country’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has since vowed never to mention the name of the suspect, a 28-year-old Australian man.

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The suspected shooter appears to have circulated a rabidly anti-Muslim and white supremacist manifesto before the attack. Video of at least part of the shootings was also posted on social media.

“That quiet Friday afternoon has become our darkest of days,” Ardern told Parliament in her first address since the tragedy.

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The politician called the killer a “terrorist,” “criminal” and “extremist.”

“But he will — when I speak — be nameless,” she continued, “and to others I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them.”

Hotel Mumbai opens Friday in the U.S.

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