Borat and Coelho give Romania a gypsy semblance
After Borat made a Romanian village look like Kazakhstan and Romanian sound like Kazakh, it’s Coelho’s turn to have a Romanian main character in this latest novel, The Witch of Portobello.
The fact that Borat was filmed in Romania was not a reason for happiness for the villagers in Glod, the village where Borat was filmed (means “mud” in English). The villagers accepted to do what Sacha Baron Cohen asked them to do thinking Borat would be a documentary to present some reality related to the poverty. As USA Today tells us: “Staicu accused the producers of paying locals just $3.30-$5.50, misleading the village into thinking the movie would be a documentary, refusing to sign proper filming contracts and enticing easily exploited peasants into performing crass acts.”
This is what the villagers say about the experiences they had to live during the filming of Borat:
“They made us put a cow in our living room, and they made it defecate and urinate in the house. Everyone’s angry because they didn’t pay them the way they should have”
“We thought they came here to help us — not mock us”
“We haven’t got anything here. We haven’t got running water. We can’t even bathe. We are poor people, but we are still people.”
Full article here.
After all this Coelho chooses as main character for his latest novel a Romanian girl, born in Transilvania in a gypsy family and then taken to Beirut by her adoptive family.
“When war breaks out, her adoptive family move with her to London, where a dramatic turn of events occurs! Athena, who has been dubbed ‘the Witch of Portobello’ for her seeming powers of prophecy, disappears dramatically, leaving those who knew her to solve the mystery of her life and abrupt departure. This gripping new novel is filled with the themes Paulo fans know and love: spirituality, relationships, destiny, freedom.” (Fantastic Fiction)
Is this the image of Romania around the world: a country full of gypsies with supernatural powers (as in Mama Omida)? I really hope not, as there are other movies that were filmed in Romania that have nothing (or little) to do with gypsies:
Youth without youth, the latest film produced by Coppola
