GENEVA?Dutch-born director Jan Kounen has withdrawn his Cannes-premiered movie about Coco Chanel from the Zurich film festival in protest at the arrest of filmmaker Roman Polanski, the organizers said Friday.

Kounen asked the festival to halt the planned first Swiss screening of "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" on Friday evening, festival spokeswoman Nadja Schildknecht told the Swiss news agency ATS.

The film, screened as the out-of-competition closing movie at the Cannes Festival this year, tells the story of an intense love affair between the glamorous French fashion icon and destitute Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in the 1920s.

Kounen has spent most of his career in France.

Schildknecht said the move was not targeted at the festival but against Switzerland following Polanski's detention in Zurich this week.

The 76 year-old French-Polish fugitive Oscar winner was due to collect a lifetime achievement award at the festival in the Swiss city.

Polanski fled California in 1978 to avoid a jail term after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13 year-old girl.

But his arrest in the 32 year-old case sparked a backlash in parts of the film world, and several leading Hollywood movie figures signed up a petition sponsored by a French film industry association demanding his release.