False Claim that the Film “Barbie” Is Banned in Serbia, Accompanied by an Altered Photograph
Photo: Screenshot
Nowhere can one find information that the film “Barbie” is banned in Serbia. A map of Great Albania does not appear in the film at all, neither is there a map without North Macedonia – as suggested by the post as the reason for banning the movie in North Macedonia. The scene with Barbie standing in front of the alleged map of “Greater Albania” is false and does not exist in the film i.e., the scene of Barbie in front of the map of the world is altered for the purpose of spreading disinformation
A post on Facebook (screenshot here) claims that the film “Barbie” was banned in Serbia due to the map of “Greater Albania” and calls for identical action to be taken in North Macedonia since our country did not appear on the map at all. These claims are not true.
The film Barbie was banned in Serbia due to the map of “Great Albania”. It has not been banned in “northistan” although northistan is not on the map at all and is divided between Bulgaria and Greater Albania. This is just to let you know the state of affairs in our little state and what is in the pipeline, says the post we are fact-checking.
The post is accompanied by an alleged screenshot from the film showing some kind of a map of Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Greece… The headline of the photograph is that the film is banned in Serbia due to the map of “Greater Albania”.
Such a scene with the alleged map, however, does not appear in the actual film “Barbie”. Obviously, the photograph has been altered for the purpose of spreading disinformation. The original scene shows a map, but not a map of “Greater Albania”.
That can also be seen in the official trailer of the film (1:01 minute of the video).
The map from this scene was the reason why Vietnam banned Warner Bros’ film “Barbie”.
According to Vietnam, the map shows the territory unilaterally seized by China in the South China Sea, published state media.
”A line with nine dashes in the form of the Latin “U” letter is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims on enormous areas in the South China Sea, including parts that Vietnam considers its own continental ridge, for which oil exploitation licenses have been awarded.
We will not license the American film “Barbie” in Vietnam because it contains insulting scenes of a “line with nine dashes”, published the state-owned newspaper “Tuổi Trẻ” quoting Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema – a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films, reports The Voice of America.
“Warner Bros” said that it believed the controversial map shown in the film “Barbie” was harmless and was not a statement on the affairs in the contested South China Sea, according to a statement given to media outlets and first reported by Variety.
The map in “Barbie Land” is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing. The doodles depict the titular character’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any kind of statement, states Warner Bros Studios.
There is no information whatsoever that the film Barbie has been banned in Serbia, and this is due to the simple reason that there is no map of Greater Albania in the film and neither is there any map with North Macedonia excluded, which was cited as a reason for banning the movie in our country, as the fact-checked post suggests.
The scene in which Barbie is standing in front of the alleged map of Greater Albania does not exist in the film and it is fake, i.e., the scene with Barbie in front of the world map is altered for the purpose of spreading disinformation.
The film has been banned only in Vietnam.
Therefore, the post fact-checked is assessed as untrue.
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