‘Melania,’ the First Lady’s New Documentary, Abruptly Pulled From Release in South Africa

Earlier this week, Amazon and the filmmaking team behind Melania — the inaugural title from the First Lady’s new production company Muse — were expected to announce the 20 or more countries where the documentary is opening overseas this weekend, timed to its Jan. 30 release in North America. But those plans never materialized.

One possible reason for the switch-up emerged on Wednesday when a media outlet in South Africa reported that the film’s distributor was pulling Melania from release at the 11th hour. The president has been extremely critical of South Africa since the start of his second term, including suggesting that the country’s white minority is facing a genocide, and introducing potentially crippling tariffs.

“Based on recent developments, we’ve taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in [the] territory,” South African distributor Filmfinity said in a statement to The New York Times‘s Johannesburg bureau.