HONOLULU -- The world debut of a film with a controversial title has sold out at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The film depicts the life of Princess Kaiulani and the headlines of the times when the teenager stepped foot in New York City for the first time.

Now, more than 100 years later, the sting still has not gone away.

Q'orianka Kilcher, 19, who plays the Hawaiian princess, said she is not even comfortable saying the title: "Barbarian Princess."

"It's a controversial film, and me personally, I am never referring to it that way. I am calling it the Princess Kaiulani film," Kilcher said.

"We tried so hard to come up with a title," said Richard Glindez, of Island Film Group.

The movie's producers said they were open to changing the title when they explored shooting the film in Hawaii. They seemed bothered about being thought of as disingenuous when their goal is to share a part of Hawaii history, not to reopen a racial wound.

"Our goal is to show the film to the thousands, maybe millions of people who have no idea of Hawaii's past. Now that they have seen the wound, hopefully they will be more vigilant that the past will never be allowed to happen again. That's the idea," co-producer Roy Tijoe said.

Producers are negotiating to distribute the film into theaters early next year. They said they are proud that their production was the first to be filmed in Iolani Palace.

They were just as proud to hold the film's premiere on the princess' birthday, which is Friday.

"We were asked to be the opening film of the festival and it was one day off from her birthday and so we said, 'thank you, no,' and thought it might be more appropriate for the film to debut on her birthday," Tijoe said.

Kaiulani was just 17 when she was called a barbarian princess. Kilcher who is close in age said she too is sensitive about ethnicity.

Kilcher traces her roots to an Indian tribe. She said that just a few months ago, the president of Peru called her people barbaric savages and second-class citizens. So, "barbaric" stings even today.

"It does hurt, but I loved the movie so much and I loved the story so much I hope people can look past the title because what's important is the story," Kilcher said.

The film opens at the Hawaii Theatre at 8:45 p.m. Friday. A second showing at the Dole Theaters has been added for the final day of the film festival on Oct. 25 at 12:30 p.m.