In keeping with the rise of public intimacy between Balinese male youths and foreign females since the early 1980’s, Amit Virmani’s controversial Cowboys In Paradise – set in Bali’s tourist centre, Kuta – is an up-to-date and edifying yet confronting feature documentary exposing the hopes, dreams, ideals and realities of the Balinese ‘beach boys’. This small yet thriving proportion of the Balinese male community, often from poor and or disadvantaged backgrounds and having made their way to the beach to work and “learn [their] way,” now fuel the growing trend of female sex tourism in the area, and by natural progression, the Balinese economy.

Pretend for a moment you are unaware of the concept of a gigolo. Perhaps you are in fact unaware of said concept. Fear not! Virmani’s documentary is wholly successful in succinctly and clearly exposing not only how these Balinese cowboys – identified by their ‘heavenly’ bodies and captivating smiles, witty and easy-go-lucky attitudes, multi-lingual capabilities and seductive charm – go about living and advancing their lives by way of gifts and financial earnings from foreign women in return for sexual pleasure and or companionship. It also illustrates the superficial attitudes, naivety and selfish agendas that guide and manipulate this rather emotionally and morally insincere facet of human social interaction.

Amongst a smattering of scenic location shots and countless frames of women lying on the beach in skimpy bikinis, Virmani strings together a series of intimate and relaxed one-on-one interviews with a broad yet well-selected cast of people directly involved in or with the curious social niche occupied by the Kuta cowboys.

Amongst his cast are beach ‘boys’ Rudi (31) Roy and Wayan (both 25) to name a few, who though they never charge for sex, make their living by “fishing” for “old white foreign women with money” along the sandy Kuta Beach shore. Their shared mindset seems to be the common perception that all women are potential assets.

Also appearing in the film are a handful of social, medical and spiritual experts; proud and supportive elders and wives who encourage their husbands and sons to find foreign girlfriends in the hope they will bring about financial aid. We also meet reflective ‘beach boy’ Bobby (50) and in direct contrast, aspiring and tunnel-visioned beach boy to-be, Alex (14).

At one stage of the film I couldn’t help but feel anxious and upset about just how emotionally lost, unaware, or disillusioned some of the members of Virmani’s cast seemingly were. My concern for them, despite my conflicting personal opinions on the documentary’s targeted topics of contention, amplifies even further Virmani’s success in addressing and coupling two such thought-provoking and multi-faceted issues with a light-hearted sympathetic subtlety; enough at least to not alienate his cast.

As it is, Cowboys In Paradise is an easy to follow, sympathetic, well pieced together and thus captivating 122 minute presentation that effectively brings to light the ever-developing union between female sex tourism and male gigolos; specifically the Kuta cowboys and their foreign lovers. It is therefore guaranteed to evoke an array of mixed emotions in its viewers. Despite the alarming and harsh reality of its content; as a consequence of the relaxed manner in which the cast are interviewed, the relatable and wholly genuine way in which they come across on camera, and perhaps most importantly, Virmani’s structure and composition of collated accounts; you will be left moved and impassioned, entertained and enlightened.

Cowboys in Paradise (dir. Amit Virmani, Indonesia/Singapore, 2010)

Melbourne International Film Festival, July 22 – August 8

www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au