Welcome To New York, the new film from director Abel Ferrara, doesn’t star Gerard Depardieu as Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but his character is so clearly inspired by the disgraced former IMF chief that he is planning on suing the filmmaker and its producers.
The film was screened independently in Cannes over the weekend during the Cannes International Film Festival. According to The Telegraph, DSK, as he is known, was “disgusted” by the film, his lawyer, Jean Veil, told Europe 1 Radio on Monday.
Veil said that DSK asked him to file a claim of defamation, citing “the accusations and insinuations of rape throughout the film.” Veil continued, “We have the right to fiction, but not the right to accuse...DSK like everyone has the right to be forgotten.”
The Hollywood Reporter notes that Veil was quoted as calling the film “a piece of s**t, a turd” by the French media.
DSK has not actually seen the film and has refused to do so. “Friends, relatives, and lawyers have advised him to protect himself and not watch this horrible film,” Veil said.
Welcome to New York has also drawn the attention of Anne Sinclair, DSK’s ex-wife, notes the AFP. She claimed in a French Huffington Post essay that the portrayal of character inspired by her, played by Jacqueline Bisset, is degrading and defamatory. However, unlike DSK, Sinclair does not plan on filing a lawsuit.
DSK was infamously accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York in 2011. The charges were later dropped and he settled out of court.