'Love Island USA' Season 5 returns on Tuesday, July 18, with a group of gorgeous singles who will try to form lasting bonds and win the grand prize

Russians are going to see bootleg viewings of the Barbie movie thanks to Hollywood pulling out of Russia. Warner Bros and other big Hollywood names like Disney and Netflix pulled out of the country after Putin invaded Ukraine last year. So, since then, copies of popular films have come into the country through other Russian-speaking markets, such as Kazakhstan, to work around the sanctions. To get around the system, some cinemas sell people tickets for a little-known Russian documentary or short film and then show a different film during the preview, to skirt American copyright laws and Russian laws that require distribution certificates from the Russian Ministry of Culture. But in June, the primary Kazakh-based distributor that had been illegally delivering Hollywood-licensed films to Russian cinemas announced it was pulling out of the business for financial reasons. This is how pirated viewings have started becoming popular. Nikita Zabolotskikh, 17, has spent an estimated Rbs300,000 — or more than $3,000 — bringing Barbie to the big screen in the city of Perm by acquiring a pirated copy, hiring a Russian dubbing company and rolling out an extensive marketing campaign. He told the Financial Times that he and a friend came up with the idea after reading news reports that the Kazakh company was ending its business — just as Barbie was about to hit cinemas worldwide. “The demand was unbelievable. People were losing their mind buying tickets . . . A huge number of people want to see Barbie,” he said. They now plan to show a higher-quality, re-dubbed version of the film at Kinomax, one of Russia’s biggest cinema chains — with plans to expand to 15-20 other Russian cities afterwards. “It’s the best-quality version on the [Russian] market,” he said. “And probably will be for the next two to three months.” Meanwhile, in Russia’s central city of Tyumen the Gorkiy cinema has already shown a pirated version of the film on its rooftop. Organisers noted that the quality might not suit “lovers of 4k resolution and ideal sound”. Some Moscow politicians don't like the liberal western values shown in the film. Maria Butina, a Russian lawmaker convicted in the US for operating as an unregistered foreign agent, has called for a ban on the sale of Barbie dolls and the new Mattel movie, which she labelled as an “advertisement” for the agenda of the US Democratic party. “What do we see [in the film]? Gays. Trans people. Women who have taken over the world. Nothing about the union between men and women, nothing about love,” she said in an appearance on the Russian Duma TV channel. But that is clearly not enough to stop Barbiemania. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Joe Rogan declared who deserves his vote in Presidential election 2024 over current president Joe Biden

The middle school-age spellers who make it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee spend years studying roots and language patterns and poring over the dictionary in order to give themselves a chance to be crowned bee champion

Matia Marcantuoni's quest for love continues on 'Love Island USA' Season 5

Davis and Pia come to a fictional town Loch Henry which is named after a freshwater Loch called Loch Ness in Scotland infamous for a sea monster

James Gunn is said to have identified Nicholas Hoult as the person to play Lex Luthor in his upcoming movie 'Superman: Legacy', which will see David Corenswet portray the titular role.

The 55-year-old was filming the action-comedy 'Back In Action' with Cameron Diaz in Atlanta, Georgia, last month when he was admitted to hospital

Kai Cenat and Lil Yatchy treated their fans to a stunning stage performance at Rolling Loud

Dillon Danis has dropped yet another NSFW video about Nina Agdal amid his feud with Logan Paul

Greta Gerwig wants to make a range of different movies and hasn't ruled out a Bond film.

'RHOA' Season 15 finale gave viewers a small update on Kenya Moore's new business, which she has been working on diligently