Los Angeles: The recently released Blake Lively starrer romance drama ‘It Ends With Us’ will not be released in Qatar. The film has been banned in Qatar due to kissing scenes. The country’s censorship committee has blocked Sony Pictures and Wayfarer Studios’ PG-13 film from releasing in theaters, reports Variety.
‘It Ends with Us’ contains kissing scenes and a non-graphic sex scene in which characters remain wearing their underwear. Qatar has very strict censorship rules and has a history of banning US films, including Greta Gerwig’s female-empowerment comedy ‘Barbie’, the animated superhero adventure ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ and ‘Eternals’, all of which were given a PG-13 rating in the US.
According to Variety, Qatar has also blocked the R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings, which stars Jennifer Lawrence nude; the Toy Story spinoff Lightyear, which features a lesbian kiss; Pixar’s Onward, which contains vague references to a gay character, and Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s Anyone But You, which has some steamy romance scenes.
In 2021, Disney refused to comply with censorship cuts requested by Qatar for Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’. It is understood that the censors were not approving of Anybodies, a transgender character portrayed by non-binary actor Iris Menace.
Films with LGBTQ references or characters have been regularly targeted by censors in Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait, as well as China.
It Ends With Us is directed by Justin Baldoni, who stars alongside Lively. It follows Lily, a florist who falls in love with a neurosurgeon. When Lily meets her childhood friend (Brandon Sklenar), Ryle becomes jealous and their relationship takes a turn for the worse.
It’s an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular romance novel that cost just $25 million to produce, and is expected to turn a profit.
