Woe befalls Kuta Cowboys as a documentary shames village officials into action against them.

On 27th April twenty-eight men (and one woman) were rounded up by public order officials on Kuta beach, the raid apparently carried out in shamed reaction to a spate of publicity over the premiering of the documentary film “Cowboys in Paradise” at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in South Korea last week.

“Cowboys in Paradise” chronicles the lives of some “Kuta Cowboys” or gigolos who entertain foreign tourist women in Bali. Village and tourism officials are unhappy at seeing Kuta portrayed in the film as a haven for male prostitutes.

‘Cowboys in Paradise’ trailer.

Said Kuta village head Gusti Ketut Sudira:

We found 28 men whose identity was unclear but none of them has confessed to being a gigolo.

In future young men, especially “dark and muscular” ones, hanging around beach areas had better have a good reason to be there: vivanews

We will intensify monitoring of the beach and those who are neither tourists nor vendors will be questioned

Meanwhile the Singapore-based Indian director of “Cowboys in Paradise”, Amit Virmani, claims to have received death threats and hate mail from ashamed Balinese, while the contents of the film’s website have been removed and (melo)dramatically replaced with:

Governor of Bali, I Made Mangku Pastika, said that he would order an investigation into “Cowboys in Paradise”, to determine whether the producers had had the necessary permits to make the film.