A group of 11 Sri Lankans are in Belize to shoot a low budget movie - and 10 more are expected to arrive.
Normally this would be an item of minor note and maybe some curiosity, but because of some bad press and suggestive speculation, it's become "an incident."
So instead of making movies or scouting locations - they are holed up a local hotel - because of media reports suggesting that they may be human traffic moving through Belize under a dubious cover.
And this group had a hard enough time reaching here.
Because their nationality draws red flags at points of entry all over the world, they couldn't come through Cancun, or Panama and the US is completely out of the question, so they had to transit through Colombia.
But now that they are here, they're holed up at a local hotel waiting for the dust to settle or for the green light from the Department of Immigration.
We found them at that hotel today and asked them if their film ambition is for real:
Jules Vasquez
"There's been a scandal in the local paper that you all are illegal immigrants or humans trafficked, and that you were smuggled into Belize, and that you aren't here for any film making, or anything. It's all pretend. What's your response to that?"
Sampath Sudharssan - Project Coordinator
"My response is that no, we have just come to Belize. We have not yet started our work. I don't know how people come to the conclusion that we are all in this mess."
Jules Vasquez
"So you are here as film makers?"
Sampath Sudharssan
"Yes definitely, allow us to do what we have come here to do. Before that, you can't come to the conclusion that we are into a certain trade. So the reason why we chose Belize is because the cause of production is within our budget. In South India, people like to have sceneries with a lot of new things to be shown to them. They don't what to see the repeated ones which have shown locally."
Jules Vasquez
"Exotic locations."
Sampath Sudharssan
"Yes, exotic locations, you're right. We are especially interested in checking out this blue hole from an aerial view."
Sampath Sudharssan
"He says that he is totally worried now why people labeled us like this. We are yet to shoot the film, they are not allowing us to do that."
Jules Vasquez
"What is the budget for this film? Do you all have a budget in mind?"
Sampath Sudharssan
"The budget is about forty to fifty thousand US dollars."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you think that it's a kind of ethnic discrimination because you all are - well you are a South Indian, but most Sri - Lankans?"
Sampath Sudharssan
"That's not my thinking established that around they world there are ethnic people. They've been suppressed in that life; they are being tortured, being dominated. So I don't think that you need to label us as immigrants, refugees, or people going out of one country to another. There are people who are doing businesses. You should allow us to prove. You can't label us."
Nigel Miguel - Belize Film Commissioner
"First of all, I would like to say that the story was unfair to them. I understand security issues and protecting the borders of this country; that is first and foremost, and I have no problems with that. But what's going on with these artists, I really can't explain it, and I feel for them to a certain extent. I know that there is a process that needs to be done when people are coming into the country. But like the gentleman said, let them prove themselves first, and we're taking all the proper precautions to make sure that they are who say they are, and what they're here to do. It's a little uncomfortable for them, but we'll get it straightened out."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, for the avoidance of doubt, Nigel, these people are legitimate film makers? Have you been working with them?"
Nigel Miguel
"Yes, well we've done 2 days of location shoots, and we've shot video, and yes, they are operating as film makers."
Jules Vasquez
"Now are you still determined to go ahead and make your film?"
Sampath Sudharssan
"Yes very much so, we are determined, but we are to clear up the entire problem. We need to move freely to work - to scout the place out, to see the place we are interested in shooting the film at. We have not been able to find that one place yet; it's very bad. See, when we are in confinement, your mind gets upset. Your artistic thinking goes out."
Nigel Miguel
"Again, it's a little different because, as a country, we are not used to film makers from another part of the world coming in to do something, these are legitimate concerns. But as I am saying, for our office and what we are doing, they are film makers, and we are making sure that we follow the guidelines to make sure that that's all they are."
Jules Vasquez
"You have them, I get the impression, under hotel arrest right now, in terms of not wanting them to move about for their own safety, or to avoid any problems coming up."
Nigel Miguel
"Yes exactly, a part of that is out of concern, and part of it is that we made a commitment to Immigration that we would make sure that the process is followed until everyone is comfortable. So right now, when they leave the hotel, it's either me or someone from my office - they get checked on periodically by Immigration just to make sure, and everything is fine. But I know it's a little uncomfortable for them."
Miguel says their first business is to try and secure a helicopter to get that shot of the Blue Hole...
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