Director Francis Lee claims Amazon Prime has censored God's Own Country

Director Francis Lee has slammed Amazon Prime Video for allegedly cutting gay sex scenes from his movie God's Own Country.

The British filmmaker helmed the critically-acclaimed 2017 romantic drama featuring The Crown star Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu as a pair of farm workers in Yorkshire who fall in love.

After fans complained about two sex scenes being cut on the film's Amazon Prime Video review page, Lee took to Twitter to express his frustration and call on fans to avoid renting or buying that version.

"Dear friends in (the) USA. God's Own Country appears to have been censored on Prime Video. Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon Prime. It is not the film I intended or made. I will report back," he posted.

"I'm interested if any of you have evidence of @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime USA) censoring naked women or intimate/sex scenes within heterosexual stories on their streaming service? Or if they just censor queer stories?" Lee added in a now-deleted tweet.

Some viewers had claimed that the version of God's Own Country available to stream as part of Amazon Prime Video's subscription service had been cut, while those who had purchased the film got the uncensored version.

Representatives for the streaming service investigated the matter and told Lee that the version of God's Own Country available to stream on Amazon Prime Video was provided by the film's distributors, Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Lee then took to Twitter to allege that the U.S. distributor had "butchered the streaming version without consultation", and thanked Amazon for "being incredibly supportive in rectifying" the matter.