A Romanian film starring child actors has been withdrawn from the Toronto International Film Festival due to claims of unethical conduct in the production. A notification on the TIFF website announced the cancellation of Ulrich Seidl's Sparta. Details will be personally communicated to ticket holders.

The movie's international premiere that was supposed to take place in Toronto on Friday afternoon was cancelled, according to a press release that the TIFF press office received via email. The reason for the cancellation was allegations made by the German news outlet Der Spiegel. A recent investigative story in the German magazine Der Spiegel "has generated worries that governmental standards meant to protect children and keep their guardians aware while developing films was not followed," according to a statement from TIFF sent via email on Friday.

"We will no longer screen Sparta, which was supposed to make its world premiere at TIFF's Contemporary World Cinema section due to these claims. We value Mr. Seidl as a significant modern filmmaker and anticipate that further light will be shed on the production-related questions brought up by Der Spiegel."

Some young cast members, parents, and crew members claim that local kids who weren't actors were subjected to violence and nudity on the set in a story that Der Spiegel published last week. Additionally, it contains a declaration from Seidl's lawyer stating that no kids were filmed naked or in sexually explicit situations.

The same response is made in a statement on Seidl's website, where it is described as "a warped picture that in no way adheres to the facts" and calls the Der Spiegel story. The statements have not been independently verified by The Canadian Press. A request for comment was not immediately answered by the global sales representative for the movie.

The film, a co-production between Austria, France, and Germany, depicts the story of a man in his 40s who travels to the countryside of Romania in search of a new beginning but finds "a truth he has long hidden." Seidl's description of the character states that "he battles against his pedophile inclination internally and covertly."

The contentious director, an Austrian native, has a history of exploring sinister, unpleasant, and unsettling themes in his earlier productions. Prior to directing narrative feature films, Seidl rose to fame with documentaries like 1995's "Animal Love," which explored the strong relationships between Austrian pet owners and was branded a "repellent yet compulsive sleaze fest" by Variety.

According to a biography on the website of his international distributor, co-production Office, Seidl studied at the Vienna Film Academy, where his 1982 short documentary "The Ball" "almost led to his expulsion from film school, both for the film's morally and ethically dubious' content — it was seen to be mocking of its subjects — and also for its form: Seidl was accused of presenting the film unedited."

Seidl's work has also gained attention; his 2003 documentary "Jesus, You Know" won the best documentary at the Czech film festival in Karlovy Vary, and his feature-length fiction debut, "Dog Days," earned the Grand Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

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