SEAN PENN - SEAN PENN TO APPEAR IN MOVIE CRITICAL OF IRAN

Sean Penn, who controversially visited Iran as a journalist during the 2005 presidential elections there and wrote a series of articles for the San Francisco Chronicle about his experiences, will lend his voice to the U.S. version of Persepolis, the animated film that won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. (The film has become a smash hit in France, where it has earned $3.7 million over the past two weeks in about 250 theaters.) Penn will voice the role of the father of a young girl trying to come to terms with the theocracy that held sway in Iran following the fall of the Shah in 1979. In Penn's articles for the Chronicle, he was particularly critical of the country's treatment of women. Persepolis was recently removed from competition at the Bangkok Film Festival at the behest of the Iranian government, which earlier had condemned the Cannes jury's award.

12/07/2007