15 Movies Banned Overseas For Ridiculous Reasons

Wonder Woman is persona non grata in Lebanon.

By Jack Pooley /

Disney

Though film censorship is mercifully infrequent in the western world, the same sadly isn't true for far-flung countries with distinctly different - and more conservative - political values.

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These 15 movies, all of them popular and successful in the west, enjoyed a far less-favourable response overseas, to the extent that they were outright banned...for some mighty silly reasons, too.

From blatant homophobia to China's various obscure fears of anything that might undermine the state, to misplaced hand-wringing about comedy movies corrupting a nation's youth, these blanket bannings are among the most absurd and unreasonable that cinema has ever seen.

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Granted, in most of the affected regions the black market movie trade thrives as film buffs trade bootleg DVDs, so for the most part, the bans are more a symbolic statement than an actual, effective means of limiting availability.

Still, when you consider how bad things can be politically in the west, just be grateful there's nobody trying to stop you seeing the latest superhero movie...

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