Ridley Scott’s $140 million film dramatises the story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt through the Red Sea, featuring Joel Edgerton as Pharaoh and Christian Bale as Moses.

Quoted in the Middle East Eye, the Egyptian Cultural Minister Gaber Asfour called it  “…a Zionist film.”

“It gives a Zionist view of history and contains historical inaccuracies and that’s why we have decided to ban it,” he says.

The decision was made by a government committee and two history professors.

The Egyptian authorities said the film portrayed Egyptians as “savages” and the Jews as mounting an armed rebellion. They said religious texts portray the Jews as weak, not capable of a rebellion.

The film has also been banned in Morocco, because it represents God, which is forbidden in Islam.

The UAE followed suit, although for different reasons. According to reports in Gulf News, a UAE media official said the movie contained “…many mistakes not only about Islam but other religions too. So, we will not release it in the UAE.”

The 3D “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, starring Christian Bale as Moses rising up against the Pharaoh Ramses, earned $24.1 million in its debut weekend in the United States, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

A number of Christians have criticised the film for the way it portrays God as a petulant child. Bill Salier writes in his review for Eternity, “The choice of a child means that we miss any sense of a God with a long history of involvement with his people. Everyone is distant from this God, the audience included as it puzzles at the choice of a child to signify the divine.”

Read the rest of his review here.