Algeria, Kuwait, Vietnam… These countries which ban the broadcast of the film “Barbie” – Libération

2023-08-15 15:44:36

“Barbie”, a film phenomenondossierIn recent weeks, censorship has been rife. Some countries are refusing to authorize a film that would “promote homosexuality and sex change,” while others are protesting a map advocating China’s vision of the South China Sea.

Barbie, Barbie, Barbie. Impossible, unless you have been living in a cave for two months, to have missed the theatrical release of the American blockbuster with ultra-aggressive propaganda, the result of the union between the toy firm Mattel and the studio Warner. With already more than a billion dollars in revenue, the film has already entered the top 25 of the biggest hits in the history of cinema, and should still climb a few places in the coming weeks, still being at the top of the box office. office in France and the United States. But the blues of the perfect blonde who lives in a perfect world does not please everyone: in recent weeks, censorship has been spreading all around the globe.

The latest country to block the distribution of Barbie: Algeria. According to several local media, the film, although broadcast for several weeks in the country, was withdrawn from theaters this weekend for “moral attacks”. Released on July 19, Greta Gerwig’s work was removed from the programming of several theaters on Sunday without informing the public. The distributor, for its part, announced the deprogramming of the film, without, for the moment, the Algerian Ministry of Culture, which normally announces bans, communicating on the subject. “Algeria ended up being won over by the controversy over Barbie because of scenes intended for an adult audience” and allusions to homosexuality, explained the TSA information site.

Kuwaitis go to see him in Saudi Arabia

Algiers is far from being the first to wipe Barbie off the map. In mid-July, the Pakistani province of Punjab, in the center-east of the country, announced that it would postpone the release of the film due to its “shocking content”. In the country, films must receive the green light from the censorship board which bans all passages considered to go against Pakistan’s social and cultural values.

Last week, Lebanon and Kuwait followed suit. In Lebanon, the Minister of Culture called for a ban because Barbie would “promote homosexuality and sex change”, that he would support “the rejection of the guardianship of the father”, that he would turn into “ridicule the role of the mother” and would “call into question the necessity of marriage and the formation of a family”. In Kuwait, the president of the aptly named “film censorship committee” also ordered its ban without explaining the reason. Before making their decision, the authorities had requested the removal of “certain obscene scenes encouraging unacceptable behavior”, without giving details of the passages in question.

According to le New York Times, many Kuwaitis would go to neighboring Saudi Arabia to see the film where it is very successful (we are talking about up to fifteen screenings per day in certain theaters), or to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. A paradox when we know that less than ten years ago, cinemas were still banned in Riyadh. At the time, it was the Saudis who went to see films with their neighbors.

In Asia, a map of the South China Sea is debated

On another note, Barbie was also banned in Vietnam. Less shocked by the message and values ​​conveyed by the film, the country’s authorities, on the other hand, had little taste for a map of the South China Sea which appears on the screen. We see a geographical delimitation specific to China, called “the nine-dotted line”, which defines Beijing’s claims to these waters which Hanoi also claims. Last year, Uncharted, the action adventure film starring Tom Holland, was also banned from cinemas for the same reason.

The nine-dotted line. (BIG Infographic)

In the Philippines, rather than opting for an outright ban on the film, partial censorship was preferred: the film is authorized on condition that the card is blurred. Manila also claims part of these waters.