Causecast

By AARON HORWITZ, Contributing Writer

Recently, while at the Los Angeles Film Festival, I was browsing through the catalogue of upcoming films when one caught my eye—a relatively under-the-radar documentary out of the Netherlands called Carmen Meets Borat. Obviously it was the last word in that title that stuck out, probably the production company’s intention. While the film certainly does deal with the now world-famous mustached Kazakh played by Sasha Baron Cohen, that is not the main focus of the film. Nevertheless, it does provide a fascinating and heartbreaking subplot that raises interesting questions about the depths that Hollywood will lower itself to in the attempt to make a buck.

Carmen Meets Borat is actually much more focused on the first person named in the title, a 17-year-old Romanian gypsy girl named…you guessed it…Carmen. She lives in the tiny hillside town of Glod in Romania, a gloomy little place (whose name translates literally to “mud”) stricken with severe poverty and, for Carmen, a general lack of excitement and isolation from the rest of what she believes to be a very exciting world.

Filmmaker Mercedes Stalenhoef met Carmen in a bar one night while on holiday, and after hearing her dreams of wanting a better, more adventurous life, decided to spend the next several years documenting her story. Little did Mercedes know, a big Hollywood film company would soon come to Glod to film the opening scenes of Borat. During their three days of shooting, Baron Cohen and his film crew told the villagers they were making a real documentary, and paid each of the villagers a meager three Euros ($4.20) for their time.

A few months later, while watching television in the local bar (owned by Carmen’s father), citizens of Glod were shocked and outraged to discover the trailer for Borat. Not only did the filmmakers pretend Glod was actually in Kazakhstan, but they made complete fools of the villagers. For example, Carmen’s grandfather, a welder, was depicted as “the town abortionist.”

And yet, the people of Glod are a fairly mellow group. They were angry, yes, but ready to let sleeping dogs lie. That’s when several shady, high-profile American lawyers, noticing the string of lawsuits popping up over the film, came into Glod and alerted the locals that not only had Borat made over $150 million dollars and counting, but that the townspeople had a legitimate case of staking claim to some of that fortune.

Carmen’s strict but well-meaning father decided to lead the town’s fight, with the honorable intentions of cleaning the place up and making some much needed improvements with the suit’s reparations money (including running water for the village). Of course, when the lawyers slowly realized they were fighting a losing battle, they abandoned the lawsuit and left Carmen’s family to sweep up the ashes. Meanwhile, the villagers started to believe that Carmen’s family actually won the case and hoarded the money, making life rough on her family ever since.

The film provides a tragic and insightful glimpse into the greed and selfishness not just of Hollywood, but also of how we will treat one another when the potential of wealth and/or fame are within reach.

At the same time, because of Stalenhoef’s patient, sure-handed direction, the film paints an incredibly intimate portrait of a life less seen. Carmen Meets Borat provides a captivating look into Romanian gypsy culture, and through our hero Carmen, gives a rare insight into what growing up is like for teens who live in a society without the luxuries of Facebook and Frappuccinos.

View an extended trailer for the film, originally titled When Borat Came to Town and shown on British television in 2008.

Photo courtesy of Cinema Delicatessen