KUTA, Indonesia (AFP) – Fun-loving local beach boys are as much a fixture and, for some women, an attraction of Bali as the sun and surf, but all that could be about to change thanks to a controversial new film. The documentary, “Cowboys in Paradise” by Singapore-based writer and director Amit Virmani, sparked panic among Bali’s tourism officials when it was released at a film festival in South Korea earlier this month.
Its candid interviews with the local men who flirt with and seduce foreign tourists has severely tarnished the resort island’s image, officials say.
“Certainly it’s worrying. We’ll take action so the image of Bali as a spiritual island isn’t tainted,” Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika told reporters.
Police have rounded up almost 30 of the so-called beach “cowboys” in a bid to “clean up the beach of prostitution”, Bali police spokesman Gede Sugianyar said.
Some of the men at the centre of the brouhaha said they were distressed and angry at being hounded as gigolos, and flatly denied offering sexual favours for money.
“I’m stressed by the raids. I wonder if the authorities are coming after me next,” 29-year-old surf instructor Rosnan Efendi told AFP.
“I’m also angry the filmmaker twisted the story. We were told it was a documentary about love and relationships between locals and foreigners,” he added.
Well-built, tanned and sporting shoulder-length wavy hair, Efendi said he met his German girlfriend on the beach four years ago and fell in love.
“We’re together because of love, not money. When we go out, we split the bills. She doesn’t pay for me,” he said.
“The documentary is a lie. There’s no such thing as Kuta cowboys or Bali gigolos.”
Another surf instructor, 53-year-old Bobbi, who claims to be a sort of mentor for Kuta’s beach boys, said: “We’re friendly people so we chat with everybody including female tourists. What’s wrong with joking, laughing, giving massages to one another after a tiring day of surfing? It’s nothing more than that”.
Laughing heartily, he added: “If the beach boys charged money for befriending tourists they’d all be rich by now. It’s unlikely since they can’t even buy themselves a meal without getting into debt”.
Filmmaker Virmani said he was “extremely disheartened” over the police raids and insisted his documentary was an attempt to deconstruct the image of the beach gigolo.
“All they did was speak honestly about their lives. No one should be harmed for that,” he said.
“I wanted to understand the men behind the cowboy myth. People never got past looking at them as gigolos. That’s so one dimensional. I wanted to know why they are so appealing to women? What are their relationships like?… I wanted to humanise them.
“I personally believe the beach would be a very dull place without their friendliness.”
An American woman tourist interviewed in the documentary — segments of which have been posted across the Internet after appearing on YouTube — said the beach boys just “love to have fun”.
“The women that come… what they’re feeling is that these people feel safe to them and they love to have fun. They’ll get out and sing and dance and joke and they’ll include you in everything,” she said.
Another woman, an Australian, told the documentary-makers: “There’s a lot of frustrated Western women out there. Just look at the sales of ‘Eat, Pray, Love’,” referring to Elizabeth Gilbert’s romantic memoir of self-discovery.
“Women don’t want to be women anymore and instead they want to be feminine, so I can understand why they come here and they’re searching for something and suddenly this environment provides that.”
Asked whether the beach boys were gigolos, another Western woman interviewed for the documentary added: “No I don’t think they’re really gigolos. I just think they love women and there’s nothing wrong about that, and when you’re here and when you have a boyfriend it’s for real”.
Police spokesman Sugianyar admitted it would be difficult proving any prostitution charges against the detained “cowboys”.
“Like many places in the world, there are indications of male prostitution in Bali. This has been happening for some time but it’s hard to prove as the men are discreet,” he told AFP.
“They don’t have sex on the beach, they do it elsewhere. The beach is only a meeting place for them and their potential clients.
“We can’t get rid of them 100 percent. There’s a supply because there’s a demand. It takes two hands to clap.
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