VAJNA FILM OPENS BANGKOK FESTIVAL
Thursday, July 19 2007
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The Bangkok Film Festival was scheduled to open tonight (Thursday) with the screening of the Hungarian drama Children of Glory, produced by veteran film mogul Andy Vajna. Vajna was expected to attend the opening ceremonies. His film replaced the Cannes Jury Award-winner Persepolis, which the festival removed at the behest of the Iranian embassy. (The animated film, a smash hit in France, where it has taken in $5.1 million after three weekends, concerns an Iranian girl growing up at the time of the Islamic revolution.) In an interview on the eve of the festival Chattan Kunara na Ayudhya, the public relations chief of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) who oversees the festival, said that he decided to withdraw the film "in order to avoid an international incident." Chattan acknowledged that he had received numerous complaints about his decision from filmmakers and found himself caught "between a rock and a hard place -- very upsetting." He maintained that the Iranians made no threats ("We had a good talk over tea and bisquits"), but that since the festival was not run by an independent film body but by a government entity, he risked upsetting Thailand's relations with Iran if he did not comply with the Iranian request.
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