Punjab delays Barbie over “objectionable content”

LAHORE: The highly-anticipated Barbie movie which hit cinemas on Friday has been delayed in Punjab over alleged “objectionable content”.

The Punjab Film Censor Board said that “there will be a full review of the film, and it will be censored where deemed necessary.”

The fantasy-comedy film, starring Margot Robbie as the famous Barbie doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken, will be cleared for screening once the review and censoring process is over.

The board did not specify why or which parts of the content is deemed censorable.

While Barbie fans in Punjab await the board’s decision, the film was screened without hassle in Islamabad and across Sindh. The respective censor boards cleared it before Friday.

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Previously in November, the massively successful Joyland was banned by the government for being “clearly repugnant to the norms of decency and morality.”

The Pakistani film depicted a married man’s affair with a transgender woman.

The prize-winning film debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was a 2023 Oscars nominee for Best International Feature Film.

The film was later cleared by the national censorship board after the government ordered a review, but it remained banned in Punjab.