Can you talk about the experience and effect of the Borat film?
While I was filming in Glod something unexpected happened. Out of the blue Sacha Baron Cohen came to Glod to film for the film Borat. They filmed three days and paid the people in Glod a bit (most people got 3 euros). Nobody speaks English so they had no idea what the film was about. It was only while watching subtitled excerpts from Cohen’s completed film that they realized they’d been made to stand in for a village in Kazakhstan, all the while being mocked and ridiculed and portrayed as rapists, prostitutes and backward criminals. What was your budget for the film? How did you raise the funds? The film started as a low budget film. Upon Borat’s release, lawyers quickly descended on Glod, promising untold riches if the residents sued 20th Century Fox. The result, rather than money, was jealousy, anger, and further humiliation. The story became very interesting, also for an international audience. So my producer Pieter van Huystee advised me to attend the Toronto Hotdocs Film Festival
