South African cinemas will not be showing the documentary about US First Lady Melania Trump that is due to be released worldwide this Friday.

The South African distributor Filmfinity has decided not to release it, its head of sales and marketing told the New York Times and South Africa-based website News24. However, the  company was not explicit about the reasons behind the move.

The film, Melania, is not promoted on the websites of the country's main cinema chains. One Cape Town independent cinema contacted by the BBC said that it was called by Filmfinity and told not to list it. Relations between the US and South Africa have seriously deteriorated over the past year.

Amazon has reportedly paid $35m (£25m) to market the film which follows Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to her husband's second inauguration on 20 January last year.

It is also believed that Amazon paid around $40m for the rights to the film.

"Based on recent developments, we've taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory," Filmfinity's Thobashan Govindarajulu is quoted as saying by the New York Times.

He told News24 that the decision had been taken "given the current climate". The executive did not elaborate on what was he meant by "recent developments" or "current climate". The perhaps poor pre-release sales also played a role in this decision.

Since Donald Trump came to power a year ago, US relations with South Africa have been tense. Trump is known for widely promoting a false narrative of South African politics abs issues including a misinformed and discredited idea of a “white genocide”

The president has also imposed high tariffs on South African goods and cut aid programmes.

His anger was also partly fuelled by Pretoria's role in bringing a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Image: Getty