Fallen IMF chief’s lawyer Jean Veil describes Abel Ferrara’s film as a “shit, a turd”.

Fallen IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn is set to sue Abel Ferrara’s Welcome to New York, his lawyer Jean Veil announced on French radio on Monday.

The film starring Gerard Depardieu in a role inspired by Strauss Kahn’s humiliating release in New York in 2011 on sex charges, later dropped, was premiered by Wild Bunch in Cannes on Saturday.

Veil told French radio station Europe 1 that his client was going to file a complaint in the next few days.

“It will be for defamation and will cover all the extracts on the rape and the way in which Dominque Strauss Kahn is portrayed,” he said.

He added that the economist had been left “heartbroken and terrified” by the film and went on to describe it as “a shit, a turd”.

Pressed for a response to the announcement, Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval replied: “This is their right.”

Maraval told the press conference after Saturday’s premiere that the production was iron-clad on the legal front.

“We made the film under American law. We’ve done what all US productions do which is to consult lawyers.”