Roma village inhabitants file lawsuit against “Borat”

Glod is a quiet and poor village in the Carpatian mountains. This year, the Romanian village became the set for British Comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, also known as “Borat”, who starts his “Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” in the fictional village of “Kuczek”. His home is portrayed as being culturally retarded, harbouring a “town rapist”, the “number four prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan” and a kindergarten where children play with heavy weaponry.
Many of the 1500 inhabitants of Glod, not knowing the intention of the comedy film makers, appear on the cinema screen. The Daily Mail, in a recent article, said that the villagers received 15 lei (around five euros) per day and that they were told the film would be a documentary about hard village life. The villagers of Glod, mainly of Roma ethnicity, have hired famous American reparations lawyer Edward Fagan and filed a 29 million dollar lawsuit.
American film company, “20th Century Fox”, responded that the production team and star Sacha Baron Cohen had each donated $5,000, computers as well as school and office supplies to the village.
The Borat movie has been subject to controversy before: in October, the European Center for Antiziganism Research, which fights against discrimination of Roma and Sinti people, filed a complaint with prosecutors based on Borat’s comments about gypsies in his film. The complaint accuses him of defamation and inciting violence against the ethnic group.