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Michael Moore slices up US health system in new film

'Sicko' is a scathing documentary that exposes the dark side of the US health system and its powerful insurance lobby.

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CANNES: Michael Moore unveiled his latest attack on America's shortcomings at Cannes on Saturday with Sicko, a scathing documentary that exposes the dark side of the US health system and its powerful insurance lobby.

The film played to a packed crowd in the film festival's biggest, 2,000-seat theatre.

It was also the first of two non-fiction US films shown -- A-list star Leonardo DiCaprio was on hand to present his own pet project, the documentary The 11th Hour, about man's impact on the environment.

In Sicko, Moore flays a health system that, he shows, leaves 50 million Americans without access to medical care --and which even cruelly pulls the rug out from under many of those who mistakenly think they are properly covered.

The documentary fires off side shots at US President George W Bush, the follow-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war -- all subjects of predilection for Moore, who won Cannes's Palme d'Or in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.

This time, the filmmaker has landed in hot water for a stunt in Sicko in which he takes a group of ailing September 11 emergency workers to Cuba, where they receive medical treatment.

The US government has opened a probe into the trip, which potentially breaches its laws restricting US citizens from visiting the communist island.

"I don't know why the Bush administration is taking this action. It's hard to get into their heads about why they do anything... This is an administration that flaunts the law, flaunts the constitution," Moore told journalists after the screening.

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