A free outdoor screening of the film Barbie in a Paris suburb was cancelled after a group of young men threatened council staff and moved to damage equipment — an incident the French government is now treating as a criminal matter.
As reported by The Times UK, the planned showing in Noisy-le-Sec, in the ethnically diverse Seine-Saint-Denis département, was part of a summer programme for local residents. Mayor Olivier Sarrabeyrouse said around 15 youths objected to the 2023 Greta Gerwig film, claiming it “promoted homosexuality and insulted the image of women.” The group then intimidated staff and attempted to smash the projection setup, forcing the event’s cancellation.
The mayor, a member of the Communist Party, has filed a criminal complaint and rescheduled the screening, insisting: “There is no cultural no-go zone in Noisy-le-Sec.” While condemning the threats, he also accused right-wing politicians of using the episode to score political points.
Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister — herself a Muslim and a member of the conservative Les Républicains — called it “yet another serious attack depriving children and families of cultural activity” and confirmed she had reported the matter to prosecutors. Aurore Bergé, minister for gender equality, described the incident as part of a wider effort by hardline Islamist groups to influence cultural life in immigrant-heavy areas, warning: “They must be denounced systematically for what they are.”
President Emmanuel Macron has recently unveiled measures to counter what he calls radical Islamist attempts to “undermine French society,” following a report alleging that organisations including the Muslim Brotherhood were creating “ecosystems” to control Muslim life from “birth till death.” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau claimed “below-the-radar Islamism” was seeking to infiltrate institutions with the ultimate goal of imposing sharia law.
Left-wing politicians, including supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unbowed France party, accused the government and centre-right opposition of exploiting the incident to fuel Islamophobia. The mayor noted that he had not publicly mentioned the religion of the perpetrators, and criticised what he called “a dirty political manoeuvre” by the far right to stigmatise his neighbourhood.
The Barbie film — rated the equivalent of PG in France — has been banned in Kuwait, Algeria, Lebanon, and Vietnam for perceived offences to public morals. While disputes over cultural works are not new in France, this is the most high-profile confrontation involving a Hollywood blockbuster since Islamist extremists murdered 12 people at Charlie Hebdo in 2015 over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
