German gypsies in legal bid against Borat creator

[oberliner]

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German group representing Roma interests said on Tuesday it had filed a suit to try to stop British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen showing his latest film in Germany.

"We are accusing him of defamation and inciting violence against Sinti and Roma (gypsies)," Marko Knudsen, head of the European Center of Antiziganism Research, told Reuters. Antiziganism refers to hostility to gypsies.

The group said it had filed a complaint to prosecutors over the film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", saying it treated violence and discrimination against Roma peoples as acceptable behavior.

State prosecutors in Hamburg will investigate the allegations before deciding whether to take action.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-10-17T190236Z_01_L17841350_RTRUKOC_0_US-GERMANY-BORAT.xml&archived=False

[MADem]

1. Well, "Throw the Jew Down the Well" isn't exactly a kiss up, either

I suspect the Sinti and Roma are profoundly irony-challenged. Oi vey!

[Cameron27]

2. Satire not allowed with some groups apparently

This is the funniest part of the article:

"Knudsen's group has asked for an injunction to stop the film from being shown in Germany. "We called the distributors, but they laughed at us," he said."