The villagers of Ghod, Romania, are the poor souls whose miserable existences were lampooned in Borat by Sascha Baron-Cohen. When Borat Came to Town questions the integrity of Baron-Cohen and gives a true insight to the people of Ghod, who were duped into thinking that Baron-Cohen was filming a real documentary, and who were subsequently pretty shocked and hurt by what they saw.
As seen in Borat, the remains of cars are something that are mounted on top of carts here and dragged around by horses. It’s also a place without running water where the locals shower in buckets and have to take their clothes down to a stream to wash. It’s definitely not somewhere you can get to on EasyJet. It’s a forgotten corner of the world where the people have little to no chance of ever improving their lot.
When Borat Comes to Town focuses on the lives of one family, and in particular, 17-year-old Carmen and her father Ion, who is something of a leader in the village. He runs, what appears to be, the only shop and he was responsible for bringing cable TV to the village. The local men watch it in his shop-come-pub, where they get tanked and have very little by way of entertainment.
The well spoken and attractive Carmen understands that there is more to life than this; she was raised by intelligent parents and got to watch the outside world via cable televised soap operas. She realises that she has different expectations to other villagers, including her parents, and is confused as to what to do. She’s already being labeled an “old cow” by some in the village because she didn’t get married at 15 or 16, like most girls are expected to.
The locals are angry at being portrayed as idiots in Borat, and can’t understand the injustice at having not received a single cent for their embarrassment or hospitality. The film asks the viewer whether it was fair to take advantage of their naivete for self profit and to mock and laugh at their poor lifestyle.
I find myself torn. I can understand their shame and desire for a piece of the pie, yet, I thought Borat was funny and can see how the town offered Baron-Cohen some irresistable comic material. Afterall, the Romanian government is responsible for these people’s situations, not Baron-Cohen himself. But what would be a cool million be to Baron-Cohen? Why not send it the way of the villagers of Ghod? as a way of saying thanks for being good sports.
The villagers’ hopes of getting a share of the profits are raised when slick lawyers roll into town and tell Carmen’s father that they can sue Baron-Cohen for $30 million. Carmen’s father has plans to use the money to fix the town and bring running water to its houses, but ultimately the people of Ghod get screwed a second time, when the lawyers stop returning their calls when the lawsuit falters.
Life is indeed spectacularly unfair for some. That part is definitely not funny.
Title: When Borat Came To Town
(original title: Carmen Meets Borat)
Director: Mercedes Stalenhoef
Broadcasted by: BBC Four Storyville (broadcast date unknown)
Running time: 60 min (original length: 84 min)
File: AVI XVID 640×352, 550 MB
Language: English | Romanian
Year: 2008
IMDB: link
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Ionela is a 17 year old girl whose family owns a small shop in the Romanian village of Glod (which in English is “Mud”). She dreams of more than the godforsaken world of Glod, where she is considered “old” as she is 17 but is yet to marry and nothing ever really happens day-to-day. However this changed when a film crew came to the village making a documentary and there was a lot of excitement. Only later did the villagers discover that they had been had and that the film was to be the Borat movie, with them unwittingly playing the backward idiots of his fictional homeland. This film follows Ionela in the village while her father and grandfather are recruited by lawyers seeking to sue 20th Century Fox for misrepresentation.
A strange beast this film because of how it doesn’t really achieve much that it could have done but yet still remains an interesting
film despite itself. The film could have done a couple of things. It could have set the record straight by presenting Glod in an honest way – whether that makes it look “better” than in Borat or not. It could have followed the lawsuit against the film to see where that went and made a film of that. It could also have told a different story by following the real life within Glod of one person. Instead of doing one of these things it tries to do all three by following Ionela and her family and, while it makes the film feel a bit unfocused and messy, it does still hold the interest.
Personally I would have liked it to have settled on one thing to make the heart of the film and done a really good job on that, but it still works. The image of Glod is depressing – everyone lives in poverty, a lot of alcohol is being consumed all the time and it is unmistakably the world I see when I think of rural Eastern Europe. The film builds on this with the focus on Ionela and, in doing so starts to suggest that the film is not really about the Borat movie so much as that being used as a way into the story. This would have been the better film but it doesn’t push forward with this idea and it does do as much with this as I would have liked. The introduction of the lawyers adds to the feeling of misery because yet again you get the impression that these people are perhaps being taken for a ride again – used to as long as they are useful but then cast to one side. We get to see this happen and we get to see the damage done generally to the people by the ongoing legacy of the film and it does make for generally grim but engaging viewing.
The problem is that I didn’t know or care more at the end of the film than I did ten minutes into the film, which is a not really what you want to happen over an hour long film. The makers appear to have good access but by not picking a direction for sure they end up not getting anything brilliant out of their access. So, while this film is interesting, it is far from being insightful or fascinating as it never really decides what the “matter” is, far less get to the heart of it.
(comment from IMDB.com)
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I attended the US Premiere of “Carmen Meets Borat” at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, and it was truly delightful. The film was shot in Romania and hails from The Netherlands.
Written and directed by Mercedes Stalenhoef, this poignant documentary takes us to the town of Glod, the “fictional” Kazakhstan village which served (somewhat unwittingly) as Borat’s hometown in Sacha Baron Cohen’s film of the same name. “Carmen Meets Borat” benefits from the latter character’s name in its title but deservedly so.
The story of the film’s origins is fascinating. While on vacation, Stalenhoef initially had a chance encounter with Carmen, a charming but feisty resident of a small country town in Romania. Intrigued by the description of her rich and colorful life in the former Communist country, Stalenhoef decided to travel to Glod and shoot a film about its people.
Serendipitously, 20th Century Fox just happened to show up in Glod during the filming of her documentary. In presenting its simple townsfolk as backwards and even somewhat perverted, “Borat’s” presence caused Stalenhoef’s film to evolve into something completely different — an exposé of sorts, following the ensuing lawsuit which the residents of Glot filed against “Borat’s” filmmakers for their negative portrayals and defamations. The residents there speak no English and had no awareness of Fox’s intentions to portray them as prostitutes and sexual deviants.
Because we get to know and develop an affinity for the people of Glod long before Fox rolls into town, we can’t help but sympathize with these folks when the big Hollywood studio crew shows up to exploit their innocence and naiveté. The film mixes cinema verité with a narrative style, as the residents occasionally address the camera directly with an eagerness to show the viewer just how full of life they really are. That said, the film can be uncomfortable to watch at times since these country folk can be viewed as “backwards” to some extent when compared to many in more developed areas, although nothing like what “Borat” depicts.
The soundtrack is similar to that used in “Borat,” helping to illustrate the stark contrast between the reality of this peaceful village with the fictionalized town presented in the Fox movie. “Carmen Meets Borat” is as humorous and awkward as the residents of Glod. It may not be the best place to live, but it’s nice to have visited. (comment from IMBD.com)
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