Cash & Marry

CASH & MARRY is a cheerfully provocative documentary that looks at the lengths to which some young Eastern Europeans will go to get a European Union passport. Thirty-year-old Macedonian director Atanas Georgiev lives with his exuberant, multilingual buddy Marko in a little Balkan enclave of Vienna. Some of the guys have low-paying jobs, and some don't. The film opens with Marko serving as best man at a friend's wedding to an Austrian woman. Aliens who are married to Austrians can work legally and apply for passports after three years of marriage. The guys figure that, at around $10,000, paying a bride to marry them is a bargain — cheaper and more time-effective than going to college. Now Marko and Atanas go on the lookout for some kind-hearted Austrian women who'll marry them for cash. They hand out flyers to ladies on the street, then turn to a flea market and even a red-light district to find likely candidates. Finally, Barbara, a member of the Austrian Communist party, agrees to marry Atanas. But with immigration lawyers, marriage registrars, and their friends and family giving them conflicting advice, will Atanas ever know domestic bliss? (In English, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, German, and French with subtitles) – B.B.