The Iranian news agency Fars is reporting that the film "300" has angered the Iranian people "due to its intentional insults to the country's ancient culture" and is being "viewed by many, even non-Iranians, as overt animosity towards Iran."
Fars said that Iranian state television had already aired several commentaries calling the film "insulting," and had hosted Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies; the Iranian paper Ayende-No wrote Tuesday that "the film... is a new effort to slander the Iranian people"; and Iran's biggest circulation newspaper, Hamshahri, said the film was "serving the policy of the U.S. leadership" and predicted that it would "prompt a wave of protest in the world... Iranians living in the U.S. and Europe will not be indifferent about this obvious insult."
While the film has not opened in Iran, one Iranian paper said that bootleg DVDs were already available.
Source: Fars, Iran, March 15, 2007
