Controversy
The festival initially announced that the French-produced animated feature Persepolis would open the festival. The film is an adaptation of a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi (who co-directed the film), telling the story of her childhood growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. However, the Embassy of Iran asked the festival organizers to consider showing another film from Iran, so Persepolis was dropped from the program. The festival director, Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, was quoted as saying:
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. It's a good film, but there are other considerations.
We had a request from the Iranian Embassy that the film festival remove the film, and we did. Now we move on.
However, Chattan also said that the decision to cancel the film was his alone and that "there was no outside pressure".
The Hungarian film, Children of Glory, depicting the "Blood in the Water" Olympic water polo match and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was chosen as the replacement opening film.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival
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