Algeria has banned the hit film 'Barbie' three weeks after its release in the mainly Muslim North African nation.
ADVERTISEMENTAlgeria has banned the movie Barbie, which had been showing at some cinemas in the country for several weeks, according to an official source and the local 24H Algerie news site.
The country’s Culture Ministry supervises the contents of films projected in cinemas and can stop them being shown. It has asked cinemas to withdraw the Hollywood blockbuster immediately.
The official source said the film "promotes homosexuality and other Western deviances" and that it "does not comply with Algeria's religious and cultural beliefs."
Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, Barbie currently has massed $1.18 billion (€1 billion) in box office ticket sales worldwide since its 21 July debut.
Lebanon and Kuwait have both also banned the film on similar grounds last week.
Kuwait announced a ban in a bid to protect “public ethics and social traditions”, shortly after a Lebanese minister asked authorities in his country to bar the movie from cinemas for “promoting homosexuality and transsexuality … supports rejecting a father’s guardianship, undermines and ridicules the role of the mother, and questions the necessity of marriage and having a family.”
A spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information said that the film, “promulgates ideas and beliefs that are alien to Kuwaiti society and public order”.
The ministry also banned the Australian horror film Talk to Me – which also features very high on our Best Movies of the Year So Far list - on similar grounds. Talk to Me features the appearance of a transsexual actor.
