Political farce invades Borat's set

Diego Valderas, United Left's (IU) coordinator in Andalusia, was heading to Seville's Plaza de España on Tuesday as part of a march against the constitutional reform to cap the budget deficit going through Congress. On the way, however, he and the hundred or so other marchers bumped into another group of "demonstrators" who blocked them from handing their petition in to the Andalusian government delegation.

These 400 revolutionaries were shouting to pull down an invisible statue of Aladeen, the dictator responsible for ruining life in the imaginary country of Fediya. The statue is set to be added in post-production and will bear the bearded face of British Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who is in Seville this week to shoot part of his new film, Finchley Dreams, about a Gaddafi-style dictator.

The IU protest collided with barriers blocking off the plaza, which had been turned into Aladeen's palace, and an argument broke out between the IU's Andalusian chiefs and the film's security staff. After a tense wait, which Valderas exploited to rouse the crowd, and an intervention by the police, the protestors were finally granted access to the building and handed in their petition.

But if the scene of IU leaders with their placards, mounted police in the background and an Aladeen army tank beside weren't surreal enough, a short while later Seville's mayor, Juan Ignacio Zoido of the Popular Party, also arrived for a visit. The mayor greeted Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles, asking the latter to come back to present the film in the same plaza when it was ready. Let's just hope Señor Valderas and co don't make the final cut.