Cinemas in Egypt are witnessing the screening of the movie “Barbie”, which sparked great controversy in a number of countries, especially the Arab ones.
The film’s events are related to a world called “Barbie Land” and situations related to these dolls revolve around it, in a 114-minute show.
Barbie, produced by Warner Bros. Directed by Greta Gerwig, is the first work directed by a woman to have worldwide revenues exceeding $1 billion.
“Barbie” was banned from showing in a few Arab countries, and in return it was allowed to be shown in many countries such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco and other countries.
In Egypt, Parliamentarian Mahmoud Essam Moussa submitted a question to the Minister of Culture regarding the ministry’s measures to prevent the showing of the movie “Barbie”.
For his part, art critic Tariq Al-Shennawi confirms that the film was allowed to be shown in Arab countries, including Egypt, with the deletion of a simple scene from it.
Al-Shennawi added to “Sky News Arabia”:
Before the Barbie movie, it was a mistake to ban Travis Scott’s concert in Egypt, and the party was held in Gulf countries with an audience many times greater than the attendance that was allowed in Egypt, which was only six thousand tickets. There is a trend that takes advantage of the existence of a conservative voice within Egyptian society that tends to prevent more than show, and is always motivated by the rule of closing doors, and it succeeded in that, but it is a temporary success. There are those who have certain tendencies, but the problem lies in promoting these tendencies. It is not reasonable for the whole world to see a work of art and the Arab world not to see it, especially since it is the highest in terms of revenue, whether in the Arab world or the rest of the world. We saw how cars set off from Kuwait towards Saudi Arabia to watch the movie. Egypt showed the film to the Sunni category over 12 years old, as some Gulf countries showed it with a rating of over 15, which I think is a correct decision. The film, after deleting a simple scene from it, and after the age classification, its showing became a necessity, and society accepted that, as evidenced by the fact that its revenues are very high in Arab countries, and it even outperformed some Arab films. This film has become the first in the last two weeks, so that Oppenheimer’s film slipped, but Barbie remained in the lead. I hope we learn from Travis Scott’s lesson and not repeat it.
