Carmen Meets Borat wins Grand-Prix

Dutch documentary Carmen Meets Borat wins Grand-Prix at Message to Man Film Festival in Russia

The feature-length documentary film Carmen Meets Borat by Mercedes Stalenhoef has been awarded the ‘Golden Centaur’ Grand-Prix at the 19th edition of the Message to Man International Documentary, Short and Animated Film Festival in St Petersburg, Russia. The festival took place from June 15 – 22, 2009.

Carmen Meets Borat was last year's official entry from the Netherlands for the Academy Awards in the category 'Best Feature Documentary Film' and premiered in November 2008 at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Following its premiere the film received a lot of attention from the international press and has been selected by more than 25 film festivals worldwide, including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the International Documentary Film Festival DocAviv in Israel and the Los Angeles Film Festival in the United States.

The film tells the story of a small village in a big universe. A gypsy village is suddenly confronted with huge dilemmas after its inhabitants are portrayed as backward people from Kazachstan in the film Borat by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. A hilarious film with serious undertones.

Carmen Meets Borat is produced by Pieter van Huystee Film in co-production with BBC, YLE, SBS, SUB-CULT-URA and Dutch Broadcaster IKON.

Message to Man International Film Festival, 15-22 juni 2009