2023-09-07 18:00:00
In the aisles of a famous bookstore, a lady in her fifties all dressed in pink hesitates between two books to put on her bedside table. “Is it for Barbie that you are dressed like that?” asked an intrigued employee, referring to the release of the event film on September 7 in Lebanon. ” Me ? No honey, it’s just the color of the season,” Linda replies with a laugh. High heels and cigarettes in her pocket, this tall brunette shows no enthusiasm for the release of the film – and prefers to go to brunch this Wednesday, promising herself to go and buy her ticket on Saturday: “Just to annoy the Minister of Culture. Last July, the release date of Barbie in Lebanon was postponed, the outgoing Minister of Culture having asked General Security, through the Ministry of the Interior, to ban the film, accusing him to go ” once morest the moral and religious values of the country”. Perhaps a little too frightened by the evocation of the notion of matriarchy…
The Film Censorship Committee in Lebanon, made up of representatives from several ministries and attached to General Security, declared on August 11 to L’Orient-Le Jour that it had no reason to ask for the banning of the film Barbie. .
It is thus finally that the famous blonde won the battle without even breaking a nail.
Pink Fever in Beirut
It’s a tidal wave of pink that seizes cinema halls. Behind the counters, the phones keep ringing. “I’ve never seen that,” says an employee. In Dbayé, all evening screenings are sold out until the weekend. Between two cappuccinos, passers-by stop to reserve their places, but nothing helps, it will be necessary to wait. For this first evening, 600 people will fill the seats of the Mall of Metn. A few meters away, at the ABC, the marketing teams of the major cosmetics and lingerie brands are busy. On the stands, posters, eye shadow and candy pink panties. You have to sell…
The girls in pink posing in selfie mode in front of the most emancipated doll of all. Photo Joao Sousa
If the very Lebanese traditionalism suggests that Barbie is a feature film intended for young women only, feminists still have work to do. Ticket in one hand, Starbucks drink in the other, Elio and four of his high school friends are regarding to buy their tickets. “This movie isn’t just for girls! You just have to see the promotion that is made on TikTok, ”retorts the teenager, a piece of salad stuck in his braces. In another Beirut cinema, Ahmad* is very happy. “I’m going to see Barbie,” enthused the 15-year-old boy, who traveled from Nabatiyé to the capital to see him with his friend Aïcha*. “Don’t lie, say you just want to see it for Ryan Gosling,” he tells her, smiling. For the conservative families of these two young people, the values promoted by Greta Gerwig’s film are “dangerous”. In accordance with the words of Minister Mortada, the feature film proves more than ever that the Streisand effect – which designates a phenomenon which manifests itself by the overbroadcasting of information subject to an attempt at censorship – is still just as perennial in the country of the Cedar. “Those are bullshit, a film cannot change anyone”, assures the young girl, exasperated by these controversies.
Tell me what you’re wearing, I’ll tell you what movie you watch
At the beginning of September, the temperatures are still close to 30 degrees and the start of the school year still seems far away for young Beirutis. For Samer, 17, the scene is somewhat “embarrassing”. For the birthday of his little sister Anna, who makes fun of him, he is forced to put on his most beautiful pink outfit. We have seen worse as a situation. If her sister has never been a fan of the famous doll, she comes to follow the trend. In Verdun, three twenty-somethings are waiting for their popcorn. Joude, Lana and Mariam waited months to see the film. “We want to live in a pink bubble,” says Joude, glitter in her eyes. “It’s all our childhood,” adds Lana.
Immortalize the long-awaited cinema session in Lebanon. Photo Joao Sousa
Witnesses of a political class that no longer relies on low-level populism to unite, Lebanese youth are not disturbed by scandals and offensive tweets. “I mightn’t name a member of the government,” Romy said before her 5 p.m. session. Barely out of the hospital, she says she is “ready for a marshmallow overdose”. And she was served. Worn by Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the film only sends light critical messages towards the patriarchy gnawing at Los Angeles and its surroundings. If the message behind the film is intended to be universal, it is drowned in the far too Hollywood vision of the director. Which nevertheless seduces the spectators of this room in Verdun. The film ends under the applause of the conquered spectators. “Really, it didn’t deserve this controversy… If he hadn’t said that there was a trans person in the film, we wouldn’t even have noticed,” says Asma*, a teenager, still upset by the message of the movie. “Barbie tells us that we don’t have to be perfect anymore… that we are more than our appearance,” she says. Near her, a group of young girls do not lose the north: “Girls, we have to do our TikTok! »
The young spectators at the premiere of the film “Barbie”, all dressed in pink. Photo Mohammad Yassine
Meanwhile, according to the latest statistics, the Barbie movie has grossed $1.36 billion since its release in July 2023, becoming the year’s highest-grossing film globally.
*The first names have been changed for the sake of anonymity of the interlocutors.
In the aisles of a famous bookstore, a lady in her fifties all dressed in pink hesitates between two books to put on her bedside table. “Is it for Barbie that you are dressed like that?” asked an intrigued employee, referring to the release of the event film on September 7 in Lebanon. ” Me ? No honey, it’s just the color of the…
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