In 2011, vonTrier released "Melancholia", a psychological drama. The film was in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Known to be provocative in interviews, vonTrier's remarks during the press conference before the premiere of "Melancholia" in Cannes caused significant controversy in the media, leading the festival to declare him "persona non grata" and to ban him from the festival for one year (without, however, excluding "Melancholia" from that year's competition). Minutes before the end of the interview, Trier was asked by a journalist about his German roots and the Nazi aesthetic in response to the director's description of the film's genre as "German romance". The director, who was brought up with his Jewish father and only found out later in life that his biological father was a non-Jewish German, appeared offended by the connotation and responded by discussing his German identity. He joked that since he was no longer Jewish he now "understands" and "sympathizes" with Hitler, that he is not against the Jews except for Israel which is "a pain in the ass" and that he is a Nazi. These remarks caused a stir in the media which, for the most part, presented the incident as an antisemitic scandal. The director released a formal apology immediately after the controversial press conference and kept apologizing for his joke during all of the interviews he gave in the weeks following the incident, admitting that he was not sober, and saying that he did not need to explain that he is not a Nazi. The actors of "Melancholia" who were present during the incident – Dunst, Gainsbourg, Skarsgård – defended the director, pointing to his provocative sense of humor and his depression. The director of the Cannes festival later characterized the controversy as "unfair" and as "stupid" as vonTrier's bad joke, concluding that his films are welcome at the festival and that vonTrier is considered a "friend". In 2019, von Trier stated that he made this remark at the "only press conference I ever had when I was sober."