New York, NY, May 25, 2012 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the decision by the Cannes film festival to drop from the program an offensive film by the anti-Semitic French comic performer Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala.

The film, titled "The Anti-Semite" or "Yahod Setiz," was produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center.  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 serially convicted Holocaust denier, also makes a cameo appearance in the film.

"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."

A Cannes official indicated that the festival has a policy of banning films that threaten public order or insult religious beliefs, and that Dieudonne's film clearly violated that policy.

Dieudonne 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 has recently garnered media attention in France after announcing his candidacy for parliament as a member of the Anti-Zionist Party (Parti Anti-Sioniste, or PAS) in upcoming elections.