ROMANIA: Romanian villagers are furious their roles in top-grossing U.S. film 'Borat' earned them little cash or respect

A potholed asphalt road curves along bare hills and old women carry bundles of firewood, dodging large trucks, horse-drawn carts and cows. Lining the road are tiny houses draped in vines, some lack running water. Not the kind of place you might expect to be the setting of a major film but Kazakh clown "Borat" is dominating western box offices. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays the boorish and offensive 'Borat' in the faux documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Borat plays an intrepid journalist on his travels in the United States. The film debuted two weekends ago as the No 1. film in North America, grossing more than 26 million U.S. dollars in domestic sales and has so far earned 14.1 million pounds during its fortnight on release in Britain. Romania may not be a stop on Borat's fictional road trip, but Romanian villagers are furious their roles in this month's top-grossing U.S. film earned them a few laughs but little cash. Nestled in a narrow valley in southern Romania, the village of Glod, part of Moroeni, 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, travelling through the United States, poor villagers feel they were cheated. "The way they did it (Borat movie producers) was a wrong one. They gave us just 150.000 lei (Romanian old currency equivalent to less than 5 Euros/USD) to film us and make everybody laugh about us (making us to look like fools)," said one man in the village, adding, "They did very bad by us. Everybody from the town hall took money to let them film here." The villagers say the film, which portrays Kazakhstan as a nation of horse urine-drinking misogynists, can only increase further discrimination they say they face in Romania and damage the country's image abroad. An old woman told Reuters they hadn't been paid. "They didn't gave us any money. Do you hear what your old mum is telling to you? Do you understand?" she said. Western observers criticise 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. Some Glod villagers said they were paid roughly 5-7 U.S. dollars 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". One man said "(We were) defrauded and that's it! Because they (Borat movie producers) gave money to some people, to other people they didn't and that's the reason (for this scandal) of what happened." Another man was bitter about the way villagers had been used, "They bribe (the officials from the town hall to get the permission for filming) to make the film and a big business," he said. But as Romanian newspapers and magazines are filled with the story some might be hoping that good things could come from the publicity.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006

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