Stephen Daldry's The Reader has been denied permission to shoot a scene with lead actor David Kross at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin.

According to the Berliner Zeitung, Horst Seferens, the spokesperson for the memorial's foundation, explained that the museum has 'a fundamental approach: feature films should not be made in memorials' and noted that The Weinstein Company and Daldry had shown understanding for the decision.

'It is about the dignity of the place', he said.

Earlier this year, a controversy had flared up around the desire of the production team of the Tom Cruise Second World War drama Valkyrie to obtain a shooting permit for the Bendlerblock where the architects of the failed assassination plot against Adolf Hitler were put before a firing squad in July 1944.

The Reader is shooting in Germany and New York.

Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack producing through their company, Mirage Enterprises, with Scott Rudin. Studio Babelsberg's Carl Woebcken and Christoph Fisser are co-producing, together with Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures' Henning Molfenter. Redmond Morris is the executive producer.

The Weinstein Company is financing the production with Studio Babelsberg, and will handle theatrical distribution of the film in the US and worldwide sales.

Nicole Kidman, Ralph Fiennes and David Kross star in the story of a man in postwar Germany whose life is shaped by an affair with an older woman.