Country bans ‘Barbie’ film over disputed map scene

Margot Robbie’s blockbuster new Barbie movie has been banned in one country over a controversial scene. Here’s why.

Margot Robbie’s latest film, Barbie, is at the centre of a censorship storm, and it all concerns a map which shows a disputed border with China.

According to Variety authorities in Vietnam have banned commercial screenings of the Warner Bros. film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

The comedy blockbuster was set to have been released in the country on July 21 but the film contains a controversial scene that local authorities say is offensive: a map that shows the ‘nine-dash line,’ a set of line segments on various maps that indicate the territorial claims of the People’s Republic of China in the South China Sea.

Maps that show this claim are considered to violate Vietnam’s sovereignty.

Margot Robbie attends the "Barbie" Celebration Party at Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Picture: Hanna Lassen/Getty Images

In 2016, a United Nations tribunal in The Hague ruled unanimously against the validity of the ‘nine-dash line,’ however, China has said it does not recognise the decision.

Vietnam has a long land border of 4,550km, bordering China to the North, Laos and Cambodia to the West, and the South China Sea to the East.

Map of the nine-dash line showing China’s territorial claim. Picture: Wikipedia

Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said that the National Film Evaluation Council decided to ban the film over the snippet.

“We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” said the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, also quoting Vi Kien Thanh.

Margot Robbie during the Seoul Premiere of "Barbie" in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Other foreign entertainment has run into the same problem in Vietnam because they used the ‘nine-dash line’ in maps.

In 2021, Netflix was ordered to removed Australian spy drama Pine Gap from the Vietnamese market.

The animated feature Abominable was banned in 2019 and the action-adventure film Uncharted was banned in 2022.

A film exhibitor was fined for showing Abominable, and staff at the Vietnam Cinema Department were reprimanded for not reporting the offending images.