KUALA LUMPUR: The full version of the award-winning Malaysian film, Tiger Stripes, will be available for streaming on Netflix globally from Feb 15.
Directed by Amanda Nell Eu, the coming-of-age film won the Grand Prize at the Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival in France last year.
The theatrical version which was released in local cinemas last October had several scenes cut out by the Film Censorship Board (LPF).
In a previous Facebook post on the matter, Eu said: "I am not here to attack the Censorship Board, but the film that will be shown in local cinemas is not the film that we made, and it is not the film that won the Grand Prize of Critics' Week in Cannes."
She added that the film had been made with Malaysians in mind.
Tiger Stripes tells the story of 12-year-old Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) who reaches puberty when she realises that she is transforming in horrifying ways, and becomes fearful of her own body.
When her friends discover this unsettling development, they begin to reject her.
"What has been censored from the film is the very joy of being a young girl in Malaysia. A young girl who is different from the rest, misunderstood, or has the urge to express herself differently from others – a young girl who is innocent and curious about the world around her and fights for her existence in this world," said Eu.
Eu also said that her film was meant to resonate with people who felt like they did not fit in, and it was regrettable that they "had to be censored from public view."
She added that she believes that Malaysian audiences have the maturity to make decisions based on their own critical choices.
