The Dictator almost falls off a camel, calls Osama and 'kills' a hot model in Cannes

Sacha Baron Cohen descended upon the ritzy Cannes Film Festival in France yesterday with a series of elaborate publicity stunts for his new film, The Dictator.

In character as fictional Middle Eastern dictator General Aladeen, the controversial funnyman met the media outside a luxury hotel flanked by his skimpy-skirted, rifle-wielding "bodyguards" ... and a camel.

You can pretty much guess what happens next, but it's better if you watch the video and see the dictator mounting a camel, spread legs and all, in the most unsuccessful way possible. The camel's name? Osama. Of course!

If that wasn't attention-grabbing enough, the 40-year-old bearded faux-ruler boarded a yacht wearing a revealing pair of white trunks with George Clooney's ex, model Elisabetta Canalis.

They sipped champagne and rubbed sunscreen onto each other's backs before having a fake argument that ended with General Aladeen dragging the bikini beauty below deck.

The Dictator's male bodyguards soon appeared with a black body bag which was tossed overboard. See the hilarious pics from the stunts below:

The Dictator invades cinemas today. It's already angered Arab-American groups who feel the despot, modelled on Saddam Hussein, is a damaging caricature that doesn't reflect well on the Muslim community.

"I have not seen the film, but based on the trailer and interviews that I have seen him do in character, it really seems to be that it's perpetuating a negative stereotype against Arabs and therefore Arab Americans," Nadia Tonova, director of the National Network for Arab American Communities told E! News.

"And I feel it's harmful to the discourse, especially these days when we are seeing the number of profiling incidents here in the US against Arab Americans."