Within days of announcing Persepolis as the opening presentation at next month's Bangkok International Film Festival, the organisers have pulled the movie in response to a request from the Iranian ambassador to Thailand.

A prize winner at Cannes last month, the animated film is based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novels about a precocious girl growing up during the radical transformation of Iran after the Islamic Revolution. It is scathing in its outspoken criticism of the repression of women, in particular, under the new theocratic regime. Persepolis will be released here in the autumn.