BEIRUT (AP) — Salma Hayek said on Monday that the animated feature film "The Prophet" she co-produced has been a personal movie, one she hopes can inspire young viewers to think outside the box about ways to improve the world.

Hayek is visiting Lebanon, her ancestral homeland, for the international premiere of the film, written and directed by Roger Allers, the maker of the Disney production "The Lion King."

The film tells the story of a young girl who finds the voice she lost through her friendship with a poet imprisoned for his ideas. Hayek also provides the voice of the girl's mother, Kamila.

The story is based on the "The Prophet," a book written in 1923 by iconic Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran that has inspired generations of artists. The book, a series of poems about love, joy, sorrow, and work, has been translated into at least 40 languages and has never been out of print.

The film is divided into chapters illustrated by various animators. The score is by Gabriel Yared, the French composer of Lebanese descent who won an Oscar for his work on the "English Patient."

Speaking to reporters Monday, Hayek, whose paternal grandparents are Lebanese, described the film as "a love letter to my heritage" that will hopefully encourage new generations to think differently.

"Through this book I got to know my grandfather. Through this book I got to have my grandfather teaching me about life. So it is a very personal movie for me," Hayek told reporters in Beirut ahead of the movie's premiere. The film opens in cinemas in the United States in August.

Hayek said through illustrations, it was possible to capture the spirit of Gibran's work.

"It encourages the new generation to go somewhere else to break out of the box" to change the world, she said.

The movie also helped bring to the audience a message of compassion and humanity from an author who comes from a violence-torn region.

Gibran, she said, "is an Arabic writer who wrote philosophy and poetry and who brought all religions and the world together."