Cocaine comedy upsets Yungas coca growers

Locals ban Adán Sarabia’s Los Gringos No Comen Llajua (Foreigners Don’t Eat Spicy Sauce) because it portrays them as narco-villains For a film-maker, getting lost in the jungle can be a source of amusing sketches, which can turn even more humorous if it’s a German tourist stumbling upon a makeshift cocaine lab run by fictional drug-traffickers. But coca growers in the Yungas region of Bolivia do not see the funny side. They have banned the screening of Adán Sarabia’s Los Gringos No Comen Llajua (Foreigners Don’t Eat Spicy Sauce) because it portrays them as narco-villains. In the movie, the German tourist is kidnapped by drug traffickers who believe he is worth a lot of money. It’s all fiction, says the Bolivian filmmaker, but the coca growers are not convinced. They have even intimidated those who try to show the film. “The house of one of the people who helped us was burnt down,” said Sarabia. “They’ve threatened the actors who live in the Yungas that they’ll throw them out of their community, and they’ve called them persona non grata.” The young director protests that his comedy, while filmed in the Yungas, could be set in any jungle area of Latin America. “I was surprised that one of the leaders of the coca growers wanted to know who gave us permission to film a cocaine lab,” said Sarabia. A scene in the movie shows mean-looking men stumping their feet on coca leaves, the traditional maceration process in the production of illegal cocaine. “This person believes that what he’s seen in the movie is true but, in reality, that cocaine lab was our artistic recreation.” For the director, this is not just laughable but also an implicit confirmation that some of the coca legally grown in the Yungas for traditional and medicinal uses goes to drug traffickers. “This comment implicates the coca growers, that they do have maceration pits,” said Savadria. “He put his foot in his mouth.” The director, however, is pleased about the controversy because it has given the film very good publicity. “We now plan to launch it again. People now want to see it.” Bolivia Comedy Drugs trade guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 17, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.