In a poor Rumanian village, the Roma teenager Ionela Carmen dreams of a life as a Spanish beauty. She longs to escape the bleakness of Glod, where men are usually drunk and women gossip while trying to scrape a living. To increase her chances of a future elsewhere, Carmen learns a little Spanish watching Spanish-spoken soaps on TV. She spends her days in her father's thriving supermarket and bar and flirts a little with fellow-villager Christi.
Her simple existence changes completely when Hollywood star Sasha Baron Cohen calls at the village with a film crew. The villagers have no idea what his intentions are, but they gladly allow him to direct them for a pittance. Watching TV, they find out he ridicules them as Borat in his film. Carmen's father instigates a lawsuit. Shrewd foreign lawyers offer him their services. Everybody falls under the spell of the 'big money'. In the streets, people have less and less fun. A crisis in adolescent Carmen's family makes the reversal complete.
Credits
Director
Producer
Executive producer
Set geluid
Sound Design
Montage
Muziek
Production company
Pieter van Huystee Film & TV
TV company
IKON TV
Distributor NL
Cinema Delicatessen
Gouden Kalf nominees
Beste Lange Documentaire (2009)
Mercedes Stalenhoef
Beste Muziek (2009)
Vincent van Warmerdam
NFF Archive
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