'Borat' Suit Says Villagers Were Misled
Nov 20, 8:33 PM EST
Residents of a remote Romanian village filed a $30 million lawsuit Monday over their depiction in the hit movie "Borat," accusing the filmmakers of misleading them into thinking the project was a documentary about poverty.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of Nicolae Todorache and Spiridom Ciorebea, two residents of Glod, Romania, where residents were used as stand-ins for Kazakhs in the film.
The plaintiffs alleged that 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and others involved in the comedy exploited them, telling them the movie was a documentary about extreme poverty in Romania that would fairly depict their lives, occupations, heritage and beliefs.
"Nothing could have been further from the truth," the lawsuit said. "The project was intended to portray the plaintiffs ... and other villagers as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes, thieves, racists, bigots, simpletons and/or boors."
In the movie, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen portrays a Kazakh journalist traveling across America in comic encounters that mock Americans. The film's opening sequence showing Borat's hometown in Kazakhstan is shot in Glod, 85 miles northwest of Bucharest.
Gregg Brilliant, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox, "Borat's" distributor, said the movie "was never presented to anyone in Romania as a documentary."
He said village residents were paid above the usual rate and mixed with professional actors and others to portray a fictional village. He said there was irony in the allegations in the lawsuit.
"It's a film that uses satire to expose racism and bigotry," he said.
The movie has been a surprise hit at the box office, earning more than $90 million so far in the United States.
People in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan also have complained about their depiction in the film.
In addition, two members of a South Carolina college fraternity have sued 20th Century Fox and three production companies over their appearance in the movie making drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities.
They say the crew got them drunk in a bar before filming and told them the movie would not be shown in the United States.
GLOD, Romania -- The name of this remote Romanian village means "mud," and that's exactly what angry locals are throwing at comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Cohen used Glod's Gypsies as stand-ins for Kazakhs in his runaway hit movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Now offended villagers are threatening to sue the film's producers for paying them a pittance to put farm animals in their homes and perform other crude antics.
Residents and local officials in the hardscrabble hamlet 85 miles northwest of Bucharest said Tuesday they were horrified and humiliated to learn their abject poverty and simple ways were ridiculed for a movie now raking in millions at box offices worldwide.
"We thought they came here to help us - not mock us," said Dana Luca, 40, sweeping a manure-stained street lined with shabby homes of crumbling brick and corrugated iron sheeting.
"We haven't got anything here. We haven't got running water. We can't even bathe," she said. "We are poor people, but we are still people."
Nicolae Staicu, leader of the 1,670 Gypsies, or Roma, who eke out a living in one of the most impoverished corners of Romania, said he and other officials would meet with a public ombudsman on Wednesday to map out a legal strategy against Cohen and "Borat" distributor 20th Century Fox.
Staicu accused the producers of paying locals just $3.30-$5.50, misleading the village into thinking the movie would be a documentary, refusing to sign proper filming contracts and enticing easily exploited peasants into performing crass acts.
Only five villagers have jobs at a nearby sanatorium and a stone quarry, Staicu said. The rest weave baskets, grow apples, pears and plums, gather mushrooms in the dense Carpathian Mountain forests rising above the town, or raise a few scrawny chickens.
With no gas heating or indoor plumbing, most keep warm with wood stoves and drink from wells. Horse-drawn carts far outnumber automobiles on unpaved, badly potholed roads, and mangy stray dogs growl and snap at strangers. Acrid fires smolder in trash piles on the outskirts of the village, and children - their clothing worn and torn - play in yards littered with stumps, scrap metal and other bric-a-brac.
"These people are poor and they were tricked by people more intelligent than us," he said. "They took one of our 75-year-old ladies, put huge silicone breasts on her and said she was 47. Another man they filmed to look like the poorest person in the world, and one of our men who is missing an arm had a plastic sex toy taped to his stump."
"We are suing because they were not truthful," added Staicu, who said he saw parts of "Borat" and was disgusted.
"They did not film reality," he said. "We've really had enough of this."
Neither Cohen's agent in London nor 20th Century Fox's offices in Los Angeles immediately returned phone messages Tuesday from The Associated Press.
The mood in Glod, meanwhile, was tense and volatile, with crowds of angry, shouting villagers repeatedly gathering around reporters.
One man was seen slapping his sister, who had appeared in the film, and slamming the gate to his ramshackle home shut to keep her from being interviewed. At another point, a resident threatened news photographers with a stick, and another pelted their car with rocks.
People in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, where the mustachioed Cohen's character hails from as a TV journalist on an adventure across America, also have decried how they are depicted in the film, whose opening scenes were shot in Glod.
Two members of a fraternity at a South Carolina university who appear making drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities also are suing 20th Century Fox and three production companies, claiming the crew liquored them up in a bar before filming and told them the movie would not be shown in the United States.
Not everyone in Glod is upset. Sorina Luca, 25, excitedly described how she was given $3.30 to bring a pig into her home and let the producers put a toy rifle into the hands of her 5-year-old daughter for one scene.
"I really liked it," she said. "We are poor and miserable. Nothing ever happens here."
But a 23-year-old woman who gave her name only as Irina said she felt bewildered and dismayed that Glod's poverty was reduced to a parody.
The smash success of "Borat," she said, just rubbed salt in Glod's collective wounds.
The film remained the No. 1 weekend draw at U.S. movie theaters for a second week, grossing $28.3 million, according to the latest figures released Monday.
"They made us put a cow in our living room, and they made it defecate and urinate in the house. Everyone's angry because they didn't pay them the way they should have," she said.
"They're making a lot of money - but they've made us a laughing stock."
hahahaha jawohl hosaaa, und du ich manischer heckenscheisser was du bist ,genau o muss es sein mach weiter so hahahahahahaha ihr möchte gern italiener hahahahah
Ihr habts ueberlebt ihr Jenishe wie die Dutch shippers hey!!! aber ihr seit soooo bloed das tut weh mann!!!!
Sinti and Roma let lose we might be a minority but are more wise than that Volksfest lot!!!
That lot bought our caravan by the way before we took off to Australia!!!
Rough as nails, but hey! I know how to have manners when I need to I know a heart must always be good.. my Sinti gran told me and by the way anger is a good motivator..Don't say who you are don't give your language away, but it's the element of surprise that creates power over evil!!!
Vonnie
hallo ich was glaubst du zu wissen wer du bist ha? lass die jenischen aus dem mund , du unerzogene persönlichkeit pfujjj,weist was wir immer sagen die manischen kochen eventuell gut , aber die jenischen schneiden besser hahahaha , und der rest ihh git prasserei vom feinsten ,würde mein mann das lesen (ein sinto) der würde sagen mama was sind das für sinte ,und dir junge wo die sprache veröffentlicht , mach wie du dengst , weil die sollen sich mal nicht aufregen haha sind ja auch in den chats und geben sich italienische niks und auch spanische , und wollen einer auf die machen schreiben auch spanisch ,,, was man nicht ergenzen kann oder italienisch hahahahahah, ihr möchte gern ,geschit euch recht !!!!!!!jala jala
Germans Accuse Borat of Slandering Gypsies - - But Not the Jews?
Cinematical - Santa Monica,CA,USA
The film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, pulled ads in Germany that talked
tongue-in-cheek about running gypsies over with a Hummer. ...
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Sinti people, for crying out loud it's not too late to fight. There is Marco Knusdon a very very good activist ripping his lungs out for you lot.. suing the damaging utterly sick piece of crap Borat and co..
and you have no foresite for your children even to help him fight this to make a point that will leave us in the superior position for once. All I can say is help stop us from being rediculed again. After all we've been through you just can't leave it and turn a blind eye. Fight back, make a point, make a stance and with it break down the ignorance of the hurtful people out there.
Vonnie