Borat film 'tricked' poor village actors

[oberliner]

When Sacha Baron Cohen wanted a village to represent the impoverished Kazakh home of his character Borat, he found the perfect place in Glod: a remote mountain outpost with no sewerage or running water and where locals eke out meagre livings peddling scrap iron or working patches of land.

But now the villagers of this tiny, close-knit community have angrily accused the comedian of exploiting them, after discovering his new blockbuster film portrays them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who happily engage in casual incest.

They claim film-makers lied to them about the true nature of the project, which they believed would be a documentary about their hardship, rather than a comedy mocking their poverty and isolation.

Villagers say they were paid just £3 each for this humiliation, for a film that took around £27million at the worldwide box office in its first week of release.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=415871&in_page_id=1770

[JAbuchan08]

1. I found this article really upsetting

At the very least Mr Cohen should have paid these people more as it is he basically just exploited their misery

[Tellurian]

5. It's not too late for Cohen to do something nice

for the villagers who made his movie a success.
He's made enough on his movie to get them fresh
drinking water and perhaps build them a school.

After the completion of the movie, "The Constant Gardner",
the crew built a school for the locals who helped
during the filming of the movie.

A little pressure may help Cohen locate his conscience.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

23. The village had little, if anything to do with the movie being successful.

I don't think he owes them a dime. Perhaps he'd be good enough to donate, but I see no reason he'd be compelled to do so.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Shame

The movie was funny as hell - but it definitely felt "dirty". I'm beginning to see why.

And Mr. Cohen is an observant Jew - shame on him, if this story is true. This is not behavior that the Talmud condones.

[survivor999]

3. Oh, and the frat boys who are suing him

said the same, pretty much.

[ovidsen]

8. No sympathy here for frat boys

Baron Cohen didn't misrepresent them in "Borat". They got drunk and showed their true colors. Kind of like Mel Gibson did.

But that Romanian village?? Yeah, they have a valid gripe. As Tellurian points out above, the least Baron Cohen could do with some of the megabucks he's making from this movie is give them running water.

[Ian David]

18. I agree with you on both points.

Maybe Mr. Cohen can be convinced to start a charity to come to the aid of that village.

He doesn't even have to just spend his own money-- he could use some seed money, and then urge his fans to contribute, to start with.

[morgan2]

4. that article made me appreciate the movie

that much more.

[BleedingHeartRN]

6. Blech...

I didn't realize that those scenes from the village were "real" people. I thought that part of the movie utilized actors. Very disappointing.

On the other hand, I don't feel a bit bad for those idiot frat boys. Drunk or not, they should have known that in this day and age, anything said on camera is pretty much fair game.

[-..__...]

7. Borat World!

They could turn it into a tourist mecca and have Borat impersonators walking around asking visitors stupid questions and daily reenactments of the "Running of the Jew" complete with audience participation.

[Scout]

9. this just reinforces my belief that I don't want to see this movie...

the previews made me think it was a very stupid, low brow comedy. Now I'm even more sure that I don't want to waste any money or time on it.

what an asshole that movie-maker is!

[neebob]

11. Same here

It's like Jerry Seinfeld and Groucho Marx had a baby, and he grew up and redid ... gah, what the name of that guy with the Russian character? And it wasn't even the least bit funny.

You couldn't have paid me to watch this movie before I found out everyone in it was duped.

[MilesColtrane]

12. I believe you're looking for Yakov Smirnoff.

The difference being that he was actually born in Ukraine.

Borat is the modern version of Jose Jimenez.
You may remember Bill Dana apologizing a few years back for creating such a stereotype in the name of comedy.
I doubt Cohen ever will.

[neebob]

15. Yes, thank you.

I've never seen Jose Jimenez - just heard of him by way of questioning a friend doing an imitation that I misinterpreted.

[springhill]

14. I saw Will Ferrel being interview on Charlie Rose..........

and he thought it was one of the funniest movies he had ever seen.

[neebob]

16. Coincidentally

I saw the Borat trailer, along with the one for Beerfest and some other moronic film that I can't recall, ahead of Talladega Nights. Makes me wonder if Will Ferrell had a financial interest in saying that. Then again, I rarely think Ferrell is funny. I only saw Talladega Nights because my friend and I do a movie every weekend and we live in a small town with eight screens, so sometimes there isn't a better choice - except to stay home, of course.

[Kire]

24. Sacha Baron Cohen played Jean Girard

Ricky Bobby's nemesis in Talladega Nights

[neebob]

26. That's right

I forgot. I didn't think he was very funny in that, either, but he wasn't as loathesome like in the Borat role.

[Mojambo]

20. I agree with Ferrell

It's definitely one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

Some of the humor is pretty rough. Wear a cup.

[Scout]

22. figures

i don't think that much of will ferrell movies either. Except for Elf, I liked that (most of it).

[sniffa]

28. you uzbeki propagandist.

[MilesColtrane]

10. Satirists are supposed to puncture the powerful

I saw the beginning of this film with the "Kazakh" scenes and it looked like the exploitation of those living in grinding poverty. It kind of gave me a sick feeling.

[rhiannon55]

13. The Borat character seems as annoyingly stupid as Jerry Lewis

I don't think I could sit through it. Knowing about the exploitation involved in making this movie simply reinforces for me why I won't be seeing it. A stupid OR exploitative movie is bad. A stupid AND exploitative movie is worse.

[Annces]

17. I think he is doing good work

If we had more Borats out there, people wouldn't be able to get away with hidden hypocrisy so easily. He was on Leno the other day and really showed up Leno with his wit. Guys like Leno and Letterman know practically nil about what is going on in the world, or seem to actually care. Their comics write their jokes, but I don't think they know as much as their writers do. So comics like Borat can clean up.

[datasuspect]

19. seems like poor gypsies get more compassion

around here than americans who cannot afford to pay their bills.

or smokers.

[Texasgal]

21. ZING! n/t

[Anarcho-Socialist]

25. As I said in another thread about this, the Daily Mail isn't a reliable source

It's even more right-wing than the FOX News Channel. I'll see the movie for myself and decide.

[matcom]

27. what a friggen bullshit article

I think Mississippi should sue for the way they were pretrayed in 'Forest Gump'

And good LORD does NYC have a case to sue for every mob movie ever made!

:eyes: