Angelina Jolie has spoken out after it was reported that her new film Eternals will be banned in several countries reportedly because of an on-screen same-sex kiss.
The $200m Marvel film will be banned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait allegedly due to a scene that shows two men kissing.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney refused the “edit requests” of local censors leading to the film being quietly removed from movie listings in these territories.
One of the scenes in the film shows Phastos, played by Brian Tyree Henry, kissing his husband Ben, played by Haaz Sleiman.
Tyree Henry and Sleiman’s characters are the first openly gay couple in the Marvel Universe.
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Jolie, who plays warrior Thena in the film, told news.com.au: “I’m sad for [those audiences]. And I’m proud of Marvel for refusing to cut those scenes out.
“I still don’t understand how we live in a world today where there’s still [people who] would not see the family Phastos has and the beauty of that relationship and that love.
“How anybody is angry about it, threatened by it, doesn’t approve or appreciate it is ignorant.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
This isn’t the first time Disney has faced distribution roadblocks in the Gulf region.
In 2020, Pixar flick Onward was banned in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia reportedly due to a line in the film which referenced a lesbian relationship between two of its characters.
Eternals has also faced red tape in other parts of the world, too.
In Singapore, the film received an 18 rating. The city-state’s Infocomm Media Development Authority published classification information for the film, which states that “two same-gender partners embrace and kiss”, adding: “This would be more appropriate under the M18 Classification Guidelines which allow ‘non-explicit depictions of mild sexual activity or acts of intimacy (e.g. kissing and hugging) between persons of the same gender’.”
In comparison, the British Board of Film Classification rated it 12A.
The film has previously been targeted by homophobic trolls who flooded the movie’s IMDb page with 1-star reviews.
Indy100 has reached out to Marvel and Disney for comment.
