Thais Widen <i>Anna</i> Protest

After banning Anna and The King within its borders, Thailand is taking its objections to the film overseas, instructing its embassies to explain to the world why it sees the movie as a distortion of history.

New guidelines issued to Thai embassies by the country's Foreign Ministry were published Saturday in the newspaper The Nation. Thai censors decided the film denigrates a beloved 19th-century monarch, King Mongkut, by portraying him as being under the sway of teacher Anna Leonowens, who taught English to the king's children.

"The film attributes part of Thailand's success to Anna Leonowens, whom it believes belongs to a superior race, while she was in fact an individual of doubtful origin and could have even been half-Indian," said the guidelines.

The ministry, like the censors, found the film offensive and said it wrongly portraying the king of Siam (as Thailand was then known) as barbaric, senseless and irrational.

The measures highlight deep feelings in Thailand against the film, which was made by 20th Century Fox and stars Oscar-winner Jodie Foster and action hero Chow Yun-Fat.

Fox has decided not to appeal the censor board's ruling against the film last month, saying there is no chance it could be reversed.