‘Snow White’ banned in Lebanon due to Gal Gadot’s featuring on “Israel boycott list”
Snow White, the most recent Disney live-action film, has been banned from movie theatres in Lebanon due to the involvement of Gal Gadot. Gadot is an Israeli actor who plays the notorious Evil Queen alongside Rachel Zegler, who portrays Snow White.
This comes amid ongoing attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which have caused increasing numbers of civilian deaths, months after a ceasefire was agreed. According to local media, it was in response to this development that Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar ordered the ban.
The ban is said to reach across Gadot’s entire catalogue of work. A representative of Beirut-based Middle East distributor Italia Film told Variety that Gadot’s name has been on the “Israel boycott list” for some time. No movie with Gadot has ever been aired in Lebanon, according to the representative.
The country’s authorities made a similar decision two months ago. They banned Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World due to the involvement of Israeli actor Shira Haas.
The live-action remake has faced several other obstacles in the last month. After arriving in cinemas worldwide on March 21st, it quickly became one of the lowest user-rated movies on IMDB. Disney has since halted production of Tangled, their next live-action remake, and is currently re-assessing its creative direction.
Another Snow White scandal involves Peter Dinklage. He criticised Disney’s decision to use CGI instead of actors with dwarfism to play the Seven Dwarfs.
To prevent more criticism, Disney prevented cast members from giving interviews on the red carpet, and scaled back promotion for the movie by not having a traditional European premiere.
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