Kuwait will ban a new film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile with a cast of Hollywood stars including Israeli actress Gal Gadot, authorities said Sunday.
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The film, directed by and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, is due for release this month in the United States.
The story is one of Christie's most famous works, but moviegoers in Kuwait will not be able to watch it, information ministry spokeswoman Anouar Mourad told French news agency AFP.
According to Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, the decision was taken following demands on social media for the film to be banned.
Social media users pointed to Gadot's praise of the Israeli military and her criticism of Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip, during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Gadot is best known for the lead role in the 2017 Hollywood blockbuster Wonder Woman which was banned in some Arab countries.
She has frequently come under criticism on social media because she did her mandatory service in the Israeli army.
Kuwait is staunchly opposed to normalizing ties with Israel, unlike its Gulf neighbors the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have signed peace deals with the Jewish state, and has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Death on the Nile is a sequel to 2017's Murder on the Orient Express and sees Branagh reprise the role of Hercule Poirot – one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, who appears in 33 novels, two plays, and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.
Alongside Branagh and Gadot, the movie stars Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright round out the ensemble cast. The film is the third screen adaptation of Christie's novel, following the 1978 film and an episode of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot broadcast in 2004.
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