Director Abel Ferrara pointed out in furious statements that the US studio insisted on an R-rated version, resulting in a 16 minutes shorter version. Ferrara took legal action against the distributor IFC resp. he tried to stop the US release but wasn't successful. His Original Cut of the movie also found its way onto some releases e.g. in the UK. The US Version contains a lot of additional footage. Even though it is more than 15 minutes shorter, there are almost 15 minutes of exclusive footage which makes the US Version interesting for fans.