NEW YORK (AP) – A $30 million lawsuit filed Monday accused the makers of the hit movie “Borat” of misleading residents of a remote Romanian village to think they were participating in a documentary that would benefit them when they were actually deceived and defrauded.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan was filed on behalf of Nicolae Todorache and Spiridom Ciorebea, two residents of Glod, Romania, a remote Romanian village whose Gypsides were used as stand-ins for Kazakhs in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

The lawsuit alleged that 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and others involved in the film knew that the plaintiffs and other residents of Glod live in incredibly difficult circumstances and have historically been the targets of racial, ethnic and other discrimination.

Yet, it said, the film’s makers exploited them, telling them the film was a documentary about extreme poverty in Romania that would fairly depict their lives, living conditions, occupations, community, heritage and beliefs.

“Nothing could have been further from the truth,” the lawsuit said. “The project was not a documentary. The project was not about poverty in Romania – it was supposedly about Kazakhstan. The project was intended to portray the plaintiffs Todorache and Ciorebea and other villagers as rapists, abortionists, prostitutes, thieves, racists, bigots, simpletons and/or boors.”

The defendants, it added, were solely motivated by money and personal gain and intended to hold the plaintiffs and their people up to public ridicule and humiliation.

The movie has brought a large measure of fame to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a Kazakh journalist traveling across America in comic encounters that mocks Americans.

Gregg Brilliant, a spokesman for 20th Century Fox, “Borat’s” distributor, said the lawsuit got the facts wrong about a country, Romania, which has a thriving film industry.

“The movie was never presented to anyone in Romania as a documentary,” he said.

He said village residents were paid above the usual rate and mixed with professional actors and others to portray a fictional village. He said there was irony in the allegations in the lawsuit.

“It’s a film that uses satire to expose racism and bigotry,” he said.

Glod is located 85 miles northwest of Bucharest. The movie has been a surprise hit at the box office, earning more than $90 million so far in the United States.

The film’s opening sequence showing Borat’s hometown in Kazakhstan is shot in Glod.

People in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan also have complained about their depiction in the film.

The lawsuit is not the first to result from the film. Two members of a fraternity at a South Carolina university who appear making drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities also are suing 20th Century Fox and three production companies. They say the crew got them drunk in a bar before filming and told them the movie would not be shown in the United States.