Screening of Comedy 'The Anti-Semite' Is Canceled at Cannes (original) (raw)

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Screening of Comedy ‘The Anti-Semite’ Is Canceled at Cannes

By Dave Itzkoff

May 25, 2012 10:47 am May 25, 2012 10:47 am

Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse Dieudonné at a screening of “The Anti-Semite” in Paris in January.

The business counterpart of the Cannes Film Festival said that it was canceling a screening of a new film by the controversial French comedian Dieudonné called “The Anti-Semite,” citing its policy of banning works that could offend religious beliefs or otherwise stir violence, Agence France-Presse reported.

The movie, which was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center and is also known by the title “Yahod Setiz,” was not planned to be shown at the Cannes festival proper but as part of its Marché du Film, or film market, where works are screened and sold for international distribution. Agence France-Presse said “The Anti-Semite” stars Dieudonné as a violent and alcoholic character who dresses as a Nazi officer at a party, and also features Robert Faurisson, a prominent Holocaust denier, as well as imagery that mocks the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Jerome Paillard, the executive director of the Cannes film market, told Agence France-Presse, “Our general conditions ban the presence of all films threatening public order or religious convictions, as well as pornographic films or those inciting violence.”

Earlier this month, the CBC reported, four comedy shows that Dieudonné planned to perform in Montreal were canceled after protests by Jewish groups that were concerned his shows would include anti-Semitic material. The CBC said his show, titled “Rendez-nous Jésus (Give us back Jesus),” denied the Holocaust and praised Hitler.

The Cannes festival is especially sensitive to issues of anti-Semitism and last year expelled the Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier when he joked about Hitler at a news conference, saying: “He’s not what you would call a good guy. But I understand much about him, I sympathize with him a little bit.”