Films Barred From the Box Office Around the World
From Hail Mary to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – the films that were banned, country by country.
Argentina
Hail Mary
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, this film narrated the story of Marie, a student, who gets pregnant without having intercourse. This film was banned due to its blasphemous and sexual content.
Burma
Rambo IV
The country put a ban on this film because Sylvester Stallone portrays a Vietnam War veteran battling soldiers of the military junta that rules the country. Few of the Burmese actors who acted in the film were also arrested. Well, even films like Catch 22, Scar face, Sin City and United 93 were banned in the country.
Bhutan
Cannibal Holocaust
It’s screening was prohibited because of the animal cruelty shown in the film. The 1980 horror film follows a New York University professor who has just returned from a rescue mission in the Amazon rainforest with some documentary footage on the area's local cannibal tribes.
Cambodia
The Red Sense
This massively revered film was based on Khmer Rouge, the followers of ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 whose insistence on absolute self sufficiency led to genocide in the country. The government didn’t like the idea of the film, and banned it.
China
Avatar
The 2D version were banned in the country because the censor board felt that it could lead people to feel oppressed about forced removals, which is extremely prominent in the country, and incite violence. Even Tomb Raider and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End because it showed ugly things about China.
Denmark
The Ten Commandments
The 1956 release spins around an Egyptian prince who discovers his true lineage and follows it. It was banned due to its controversial religious nature.
France
Battleship Potemkin
The 1925 film was banned due to fears that it could inspire revolution. This silent film recreated the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime. France also banned another politically sensitive film The Battle of Algiers.
Germany
Different from the Others
The film, released in 1919, was banned because it questioned the law that declared homosexuality as illegal. Germany also abolished the screening of the Laurel and Hardy film The Bohemian Girl for featuring gypsies and Saw 3D for violent content.
Hong Kong
Lolita
Set in the 1950s, Lolita is the story of a middle-aged man who falls in love with a teenager. The actress of this highly provocative film Sue Lyon was just 14, which could be one of the reason why it was banned in the country.
Hungary
A tanú
Most of the films that have been banned in the country were infamous amongst the politicians. The 1969 satire pans on the life of a World War 2 war veteran. Though the film was made with due permission of the government, it was later barred from hitting the theatre.
Iceland
Friday The 13th
The most successful psychopath flick of 1980 was also criticised by the reviewers world over because of the high-impact violence and gore, the reason why it was banned in Iceland. However, such was the magic of this film that it was followed by several sequels.
Indonesia
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Australian film is about a love affair set in Indonesia during the overthrow of President Sukarno in 1965. It was because of the premise that Indonesian government put a ban on the film.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
It couldn’t see the light of the day because its depiction of Saddam Hussein as the homosexual lover of a character in this full length feature film about Satan. IT couldn’t even be telecasted on television. Fahrenheit 9/11 Iraq was also trashed because in a scene showed Saddam burning in hell.
Ireland
I Spit on Your Grave
The film was banned because it glorified violence against women. The central character of this film was an aspiring writer who is repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated, and left for dead by four men whom she systematically hunts down to seek revenge. It was also banned in Germany
Italy
Li chiamarono... briganti!
They say, the film wasn’t allowed to be screened because it showed the Italian unification in poor light. Not just cinemas, the film wasn’t even allowed to release on VHS and DVD.
Israel
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
The dictator deserved every bit of flack bestowed on his, but there were few people, prominent ones, like filmmaker Alec Guinness who sympathised with Hitler. The film didn’t go down well with the Israeli censorship because it presented Hitler as a humane guy.
Japan
Prophecies of Nostradamus
There is a sequence in the film that shows radio active cannibals, some grossly deformed mutants fighting over worms. A ban was slapped on the movie when a group of nuclear radiation survivors saw the film, and felt offended. The film was completely withdrawn.
Kazakhstan
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
The regional distributors of the film were requested by the government to not release the film because Borat took a satirical view of the Kazakh’s culture and government. Gemini Films, the distributors, had to nod in agreement.
Lebanon
Persepolis
Some clerics thought that the film offended Islam and Iran, and slapped a ban, but the decision had to be revoked after massive opposition from the intellectuals and politicians. This film is the journey of a young girl who tries to cope up with Iranian Revolution.
The Netherlands
Maladolescenza
It’s the story of a solitary boy and a sweet girl who meet each other every year at their parent’s summer homes, and as they start maturing they falls for each other, more so sexually. It was banned because the Dutch court felt that it was actually a child pornography.
New Zealand
Megan is Missing
This shocking film by writer- director Michael Goi comes was the depiction of internet predators and child abduction as seen through the eyes of two North Hollywood teens. The film was disturbing to many, and hence banned.
North Korea
Yet another marvelous take on world coming to an end, 2012 was banned in North Korea the year 2012 coincided with Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday. So silly.
Oman
Basic Instinct 2
Do you really want to know why this film was banned? But, we actually feel that people of Oman were saved from this treacherous sequel to Basic Instinct’s first film.
Pakistan
Agent Vinod
The film should have been banned in India too, but it’s only the people of Pakistan who were saved from this ah-so-boring film. The Central Board of Film Censors of Pakistan banned it because the film made controversial reference it had various controversial references to ISI.
Philippines
The Last Temptation of Christ
Since it talked about the temptations of Christ, the film released in 1988 had to face massive protest from conservative, fundamentalist Catholics. Not just Philippines, the movie was also banned in Turkey, Mexico and Chile.
Blind Chance
The film tells the story of a man whose life completely changes after he runs after a train. The film was banned in the country because of its politically sensitive subject, like many of Kieslowski's films, which too were banned in the country.
Russia
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Russia
Tagged as offensive, the film was banned in the country because of Russia’s friendly relationship with Kazakhstan.
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom
The film inspired by a 2003 bombing in Riyadh was banned in the country because it sort of worshipped FBI, and bashed Saudi Arabia. Some even felt that The Kingdom encouraged Islamophobia.
Singapore
Singapore Rebel
This film was initially banned when it released in 2004 because it documented some satire on the leaders of opposition in Singapore. When the film was scheduled for a screening at one of the film festivals, the director of the film was cautioned of a arrest. In 2009, the film was unbanned with adult rating.
South Africa
Cry Freedom
The film based on apartheid era in Seventies wasn’t allowed to release but when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, the film was circulated.
South Korea
Apocalypse Now
The anti-war theme of the film didn’t go down well with President Park Chung-hee's regime because of the film’s anti-war theme.
Spain
Saw VI
Spanish film officials banned the sixth in the gruesome Saw franchise giving it the same rating as explicit porn films. The film revived the hunt for gory serial killer Jigsaw and features scenes of graphic violence.
Srilanka
Aksharaya
There is sequence in the film where a 12-year-old kid who is accused of rape enters into a bathtub with his mother. After initial shock of seeing his mother nude, he insists on breastfeeding, but the mother refuses. The film was banned for dealing with issues of incest, murder, and rape.
India
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The film follows a man who in his search for a missing women is aided by a female hacker. The 2011 film couldn’t release in India because director David Fincher refused to make cuts recommended by the censor board, which felt that there’s too much nudity in the film.
From the May 2012 issue of FHM India.
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