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French controversial comic Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala produced and financed his film 'The Anti-Semite' in Iran. Picture: Dieudonne (R) with Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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NEW YORK/CANNES (EJP)---The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed the decision by the Cannes film festival to drop from the program an offensive film by the anti-Semitic French comic Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala.
The film, titled “The Anti-Semite” or “Yahod Setiz,” was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC).
It reportedly pokes fun at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.5 million Jews perished during the Holocaust, and features Dieudonne as a violent and alcoholic character dressed as a Nazi officer for a fancy dress party.
Robert Faurisson, a convicted Holocaust denier, also makes a cameo appearance in the film.
Made in nine days, the film will not be shown in cinemas but sold over the internet.
The Cannes Film Market, the festival's business counterpart, called for the film to be dropped from the programme when it heard about it at the beginning of the week.
"Our general conditions ban the presence of all films threatening public order or religious convictions, as well as pornographic films or those inciting violence," the film market's executive director Jerome Paillard said.
“Anti-Semitism has no place at Cannes, and we welcome the clear statement to that effect from the organizers of the film festival,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.
“Dieudonne’s grotesque anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial may play well to audiences in Iran, but the French entertainment industry and society has clearly had enough.”
Dieudonne, a Freznch citizen of Cameroun’s origin, is known for performances that routinely include Holocaust denial, praise for Adolf Hitler, Nazi salutes, slurs against the Talmud and other anti-Semitic rhetoric.
He recently announced his candidacy for the June French parliament elections as a member of the Anti-Zionist Party.