Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ Banned In Arab Countries, For This Reason, Read On! (Pic Credit: West Side Story Poster, Wikipedia)
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Hollywood’s sensational movie director Steven Spielberg is all ready for the release of his new directorial West Side Story, set to happen on the 10th of December. But according to the latest reports, the movie has been banned in countries like ‘Saudi Arabia’, ‘UAE’, ‘Qatar’, ‘Bahrain’, ‘Oman’ and ‘Kuwait’.
Read on to find out why these countries banned the new Disney and 20th Century’s movie.
As per the reports by media outlet Variety, it’s said that in countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, West Side Story was not permitted a release certificate. On the other side, in countries like ‘Qatar and Oman’, Disney denied cutting of the scenes requested by the censors resulting in no release of the film in the countries. The scene in question was the transgender scenes from the movie.
Well, this was bound to happen with (West Side Story) as countries like Qatar and Oman have very strict rules over what they censor. Middle Eastern countries have strict rules over censorship regarding aspects such as sexuality, swearing among other things as they apparently are not accepted in their country.
Well, this is not the first incident that has happened this year. Before this, the MCU‘s Eternals faced the same problems as the movie displayed their first-ever gay couple.
Talking about the movie, the story revolves around a guy named Tony who falls head over heels for Maria during a high school dance in 1957 New York City. Their increasing romance burns fuel between two rival gangs Jets and Sharks, who want to rule the streets.
West Side Story stars Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler as Maria. Along with the two, the movie also stars Maddie Ziegler, Ariana DeBose, Rita Moreno, Mike Faist, David Alvarez, in their respective supporting roles.
