It's become famous for having more profanity than any other feature film, but Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street has fallen foul of its own foul mouth – at least in the United Arab Emirates.

The wild comedy-drama has been heavily edited for its sex and drug use, leaving relatively little film left. Its 180 minute running time has been reduced by 45 minutes, a quarter of the overall length. One audience member told Gulf News: "It's like looking at the Mona Lisa with sunglasses on. There are so many unorthodox cuts that you are never really sure what's happening." Dialogue was also muted during passages of bad language.

The UAE's National Film Council deny censoring the film – this edit apparently comes from the distributors keen to roll the film out across the Gulf region in a cut that will pass all local censors. A similar approach was recently taken in Europe by the producers of Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, in an attempt to avoid censorship of its sex scenes. Scorsese himself reduced the amount of sex in the film after it looked likely to get an NC-17 rating in the US, which would have severely harmed its commercial prospects.

UK filmgoers who want to see all 506 F-words, 3 C-words, and 23 sexually explicit scenes can do so when the film is released on January 17. It was nominated for two Golden Globes, with Leonardo DiCaprio winning the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. He was the subject of one of the best barbs of the night from hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, as they introduced him with: "And now, like a supermodel's vagina, let's all give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio".