Borat Lawsuit Shock: The Day Two Romanians Fought Back Against the Film

In 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen made waves with Borat (shortened here from the full title… Borat, Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan). The film features the actor as a Kazakh journalist sent to the United States by his country’s TV station to document the lifestyle of this highly admired nation. It’s a major spoof featuring a one-of-a-kind character, whose swimsuit became iconic in just one scene.

However, not everyone was amused by Borat… The Kazakhstan government was particularly displeased with their country’s unflattering portrayal on screen (depicting the people as homophobic, sex-obsessed, and horse urine drinkers). And in Romania, where the film’s opening scene was shot, the reception wasn’t any better.

A lawsuit against Borat was subsequently filed by two Romanians. As pointed out by our colleagues at Le Nouvel Obs in 2006, Nicolae Todorache and Spiridom Ciorebea, residents of the village of Glod, demanded $30 million from the movie’s producers, as they were portrayed as Kazakhs despite being told that the project was a documentary about poverty in Romania depicting their real lives.

The Distributor Denies and Prevails

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” the two villagers stated in their lawsuit, as reported by Le Nouvel Obs. “The project intended to depict the plaintiffs (…) and other villagers as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes, thieves, racists, bigots, fools, or boors.”

The distributor of Borat quickly refuted these claims, stating that the film was “never presented to anyone in Romania as a documentary.” According to them, the villagers were paid and interacted with real actors during the filming, representing a fictional village on screen. Ultimately, the lawsuit was dismissed in 2007 by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, who ruled that the claims needed to be more specific to proceed.

Borat’s trailer: