Vietnam has banned the local release of Warner Bros’s Barbie over a scene that depicts a map with the “nine-dash line”, used on Chinese maps to show its claims over areas of the South China Sea.
The tentpole feature, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was due to be released in the country on July 21, the same date as the US.
However, Vietnam’s National Film Evaluation Council has not issued a release licence for the film due to the inclusion of the map in an as-yet-unknown scene. Vietnam is among several countries that contest China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea.
State-run newspaper Tuoi Tre cited Vi Kien Thanh, head of the government’s department of cinema, who said: “We do not grant licence for the American movie Barbie to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line.”
Warner Bros. did not respond to comment at time of publication.
It marks the latest film to be banned in Vietnam over the “nine-dash line”.
Last year, authorities in the country blocked screenings of Sony’s Uncharted, starring Tom Holland, for showing a map featuring the line and DreamWork’s Abominable was pulled from cinemas in Vietnam over the same issue in 2019. Netflix also removed Australian spy drama Pine Gap from the Vietnamese market following a complaint from authorities.
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