Tehran -- Iranian director Jamil Rostami has withdrawn his film “Requiem of Snow” from the Buster-Copenhagen International Film Festival for Children and Youth, which is scheduled to be held in the Danish capital in September 2006.

“I planned to participate in the festival with my film, but since that country’s press has insulted the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad (S), I will boycott the festival as a duty,” Rostami said.

A joint production of Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Ministry of Culture, “Requiem of Snow” won the Best Director Award at the 8th Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People in Greece last December. It is currently on screen in Tehran theaters.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of cartoons that Muslims regard as blasphemous, emboldening some European periodicals to republish the sacrilegious drawings.