Algeria has withdrawn the film Barbie from its cinemas for “attacking morality”, after it was broadcast for more than two weeks, several media outlets in this Maghreb country have confirmed. According to the online news site 24H Algérie, which cites “well-informed sources”, the film was de-scheduled from all theaters in the country for “attacking morality”.
On Sunday, the owners of theaters modified the programs by removing the realization of Greta Gerwig, without giving reasons. The distributor also announced the deprogramming of the film, released on July 19 in Algeria, without details.
“Algeria ended up being won over by the Barbie controversy because of scenes intended for an adult audience” and allusions to homosexuality, explained the TSA news site, also assuring that the film had been “quietly removed from theaters”. Almost forty-eight hours after its deprogramming, the Algerian Ministry of Culture, which usually announces film bans, specifying the reasons, is still silent.
Still not broadcast in Qatar
Last Thursday, Kuwait banned it for “undermining public morals”. A day earlier, Lebanon’s culture ministry announced it had called for it to be banned, saying it was “promoting homosexuality”, amid growing anti-LGBT rhetoric in one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East. . A surprising reason because, as Têtu points out, “there is (…) never any question of homosexuality in the summer blockbuster, which the main actress Margot Robbie justified in an interview with Attitude: “They are dolls, so there is no sexual orientation”.
Barbie is still not airing in Qatar, which however has not made any official announcement about it. Almost a month after its release, the movie “Barbie” is still leading the North American box office and has surpassed $1 billion in worldwide box office.
Already a cultural phenomenon, the film, which was the subject of an intense marketing campaign, caused a wave of shades of pink in the world: clothes, various accessories, roller skates, etc. The release of Barbie also caused a surge in sales of dolls from the American group Mattel.
