Thai film festival drops controversial Iranian film

Following the request of Iran’s embassy in Thailand, Marjan Satrapi’s “Persepolis” has been withdrawn from the Bangkok Film Festival on wednesday.
Co-written and co-directed by Satrapi and French Vincent Paronnaud, this animation won the Special Jury Prize (shared with “Still Light” by Carlos Reygados) in the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The movie is animated by French studio 2.4.7 Film and co-produced by The Kennedy-Marshall Company, Sofica Europacorp and France 3 Cinema.
Iranian cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, who lives in France, directed the film, which chronicles her story growing up in Tehran during the 1970s Islamic Revolution. The film follows marjane as a little girl watching the fall of the US-backed Shah. She and her family believe that with the Shah gone, state repression will end but the film shows that it only worsens.
The festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya said : “I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown” and he added, : “It's a good film, but there are other considerations”.
A cultural officer at the Iranian embassy in Bangkok said they think the film portrayed a bad image of Iran.
“They tried to make Iranian people sad and upset with the Islamic revolution, which is not true. We appreciate that the Thai organisers understand, and now we are trying to introduce other good award-winning Iranian films”.