| Buy Bye Beauty | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Pål Hollender |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | English, Russian, Latvian |
Buy Bye Beauty is a 2001 documentary film by Swedish director and performance artist Pål Hollender. The film is about the way Latvian sex industry and its being fueled by businessmen and sex tourists from Sweden visiting Riga. The film was shot in Riga in July 2000. The narration of the film is in English, with interviews conducted in Russian and Latvian.
Although the director firmly asserts that "The film was meant for Swedes and was about Swedes",[1] it caused controversy in Latvia, particularly for its assertion that the actual number of women engaged in the sex industry is substantially higher than the figures given by Latvian authorities. The film was also controversial because of scenes which involved Hollender having sex with Latvian prostitutes.
In Latvia, soon after its first screening at the Gothenburg Film Festival in February 2001, the film was seen as a purposeful attempt to distort the country's image given that it was supported by the Swedish Film Institute. Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga called the film "political propaganda", Prime Minister Andris Bērziņš suggested that the country could file an international criminal case against the film's authors, and the Prosecutor-General's Office advised the Interior Ministry to ban Hollender from entering the country. TV3 Sweden, which aired the documentary twice, apologised to Latvians for its negative content.[2] Hollender said in 2006 that despite having received two invitations, he has avoided visiting Latvia since the controversy.[1]
In late 2010 Hollender in an interview to Latvian newspaper Diena revealed that he has lied in the film. He confessed that, despite claiming that women he had sex with were randomly met in the streets of Riga, in fact those were professional prostitutes that had signed contract with Hollender. Also, considering accusations that 40% of women in Riga are prostitutes, Hollender defended himself by stating that he used "Latvian sources".[3]