Nov 14, 2006

Daring Daily Mail reporters go to Borat's village in Romania...

...to find, you guessed it, ignorance and crushing poverty.

In what could be a great agitprop piece during the heyday of the Cold War, Mssrs. BOJAN PANCEVSKI and CARMIOLA IONESCU tackle Western bourgeois imperialism with great gusto and aplomb. There are so many things about this article that are utterly ridiculous, not only did I not feel pity for these people, I actually think another Borat episode is in order.

"Cambridge-educated Baron Cohen filmed the opening scenes of the Borat movie in Glod - a village that is actually in Romania, rather than Kazakhstan, and whose name literally translates as 'mud', last summer....

The comedian insisted on travelling everywhere with bulky bodyguards, because, as one local said: 'He seemed to think there were crooks among us.' While the rest of the crew based themselves in the motel, Baron Cohen stayed in a hotel in Sinaia, a nearby ski resort a world away from Glod's grinding poverty.....

Just four villagers have permanent employment in the nearby towns of Pucioasa or Fieni, while the rest live off what little welfare benefits they get.....

Indeed, when local vice-mayor Petre Buzea was asked whether the people felt offended by Baron Cohen's film, he replied: 'They got paid so I am sure they are happy. These gipsies will even kill their own father for money.'.....

But feelings in Glod are running so high that The Mail on Sunday saw angry villagers brandishing farm implements chase out a local TV crew, shouting that they had enough of being exploited."

Who's the intolerant one now, I ask? Read it here:

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

(Igor)

It is rather sad, that the real life village is not too distant from the fictional one depicted in the film. Art follows life, follows art... (The real life Villiage of Mud pictured above.)

(PBD)

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