Stand-in village for Borat’s hometown furious
Nestled in a narrow valley in southern Romania, the village of Glod starred as Borat’s hometown in Kazakhstan where, in the film, peasants live with cattle, horses are used to pull cars and brothers can share steamy kisses with their sisters.
Like many others who became extras in the film about an unwittingly offensive TV journalist from Central Asia, Borat Sagdiyev, traveling through the United States, poor villagers feel they were cheated.
. . . .
Western observers criticize the Balkan state due to join the European Union next year for doing little to bring its large Roma population from the margins of society where they struggle to find jobs and rarely send their children to school.
“We have a bad image. They don’t want us anywhere,” said Luca Ionel, 30, referring to recent decisions by some Western European governments to limit the access of Romanians to their labor markets.
“And here in Romania, we are Gypsies, so when they built a bottled water factory in our area, they didn’t let us work there.”
Some Glod villagers said they were paid roughly $5-$7 for a day’s work as extras during the filming of the movie, fully titled “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
The film debuted two weekends ago as the No 1. film in North America, grossing more than $26 million in domestic sales.
To the local authorities, the movie represents bad publicity. “Those film-makers are crooks,” said Petre Buzea, deputy mayor of a group of villages, including Glod. “They were looking for bad things to show.”
“But my dream is for our area to become a tourist attraction … We have already heard from investors who want to build ski lifts and we are getting cash from the EU.”
You can check out the Reuters photo accompanying the article, Shreds of Dignity, here.
Sad to see that kind of vicious stereotyping persisting in this day and age.
Hey, where’d my wallet go…?
– I really wish they’d have interviewed Borats 282 year old mother, (he said she’s 42 when he introduced her, but I’m sure he ment in dog years), because she’d have had a thing or two to say, let me tell you.
– I was also very dissapointed that Vlad did not appear in the movie. I understand he’s looking fit for a 575 year old guy.
I decided to pass this one by when I saw the clip where Borat “fell” repeatedly in the antique store, smashing everything in sight while the owner looked on in despair. It was nearly as funny as flesh eating bacteria.
Rule of thumb: The more advance hype you hear, the more likely that the movie is a disaster.
Do yourself a favor and rent “Election” with Reese Witherspoon- satire with heart.
Gee, I gotta wonder if the Glodniks and the drunken frat-boys would be rushing to sue if the movie had bombed straight into video oblivion.
And besides he whole movie is a riff on the USA anyway so why aren’t we all suing?
Hey, wait a minute!! Gotta go call my lawyer, later.
*Snigger!*