The owner of the cinema, local businessman Maposua Rudolf Keil, opposed the ban as an infringement of the right to free expression. Samoan society is, in the words of the British Broadcasting Corporation, "deeply conservative and devoutly Christian".
Maposua Rudolf Keil, the cinema's manager, was against the ban because it limited freedom of speech. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Samoan culture is characterized by its "conservative and religious nature."