UKRAINE has banned the hit comedy Bruno as it could have a damaging effect on Ukrainians' moral health.

This ban has been due to the "unjustified" showing of genitals and homosexual sex, officials said today. The ban is not the first time Bruno star Sacha Baron-Cohen has run into trouble in the former Soviet Union after his previous creation, the Kazakh journalist Borat, caused controversy in the Central Asian state.

The film, which stars Cohen as a gay Austrian fashionista with a habit of making outrageous remarks, has already hit the top spot at the North American box office. But Ukraine's film censors were less impressed, with nine members out of the culture ministry's 14-person commission voting for a total ban.

"The Ukrainian ministry of culture has decided to ban all showings of this film on Ukrainian territory," the ministry of culture said in a letter to the Ukrainian film distributor Sinergia, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

"The film contains unjustified showing of genital organs and sexual relations and shows homosexual acts and homosexual perversions in an explicitly realist manner," it added. The film also contains "sadistic manifestations which could damage the morality of citizens."

Kazakhstan's government was initially angered by Cohen's 2006 smash hit film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

But its response softened amid the publicity it brought.

Source: http://www.news.com.au