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Women from around the world have been drawn to Bali’s sandy beaches, verdant rice fields and Hindu culture. A new documentary, however, is laying bare an attraction of another variety — the resort island’s bronzed “Kuta Cowboys,” or gigolos.

The film’s Singapore-based writer and director, Amit Virmani, told Twitchfilm.net, that he came up with the idea for making "Cowboy's Paradise" after meeting a 12-year-old boy in Bali who confessed an eagerness “to grow up and be of sexual service to Japanese women.”

“Actually, I’d known about the cowboys and similar phenomena elsewhere long before that. But they were just fun facts to me. Women traveling for sex? Guys making money off it? Big deal. Happy for all, but not enough to make a film about it. Then I met this kid in Bali, all of 12 and eager to grow up and be of sexual service to Japanese women. Now there was a story,” Amit said in the interview.

The movie trailer posted on his website — which has been been viewed almost 20,000 times since it was posted in December — profiles a number of tanned, muscular local surfer boys who speak candidly about their escapades with foreign women, including their stock pick-up lines in a number of foreign languages.

“Hi girls. I think I know you from last night. What are you doing tonight? If you don’t have any plans you can come with me tonight. I love you,” an unidentified male cowboy tells the camera.

According to Amit, each year, thousands of women travel to Bali in search of paradise.

“And many find it in the arms of Kuta Cowboys. Masters at peddling holiday romances, these bronzed beach ambassadors have made Bali one of the world’s leading destinations for female sex tourists,” he said.

The movie also presents an argument that the cowboys are not gigolos because they do not charge for sex.

“The film reveals some of the island’s most closely-guarded secrets. Why don’t the boys charge for sex? How then do women compensate them? Where do time management skills fit into all this? And how does a cowboy’s family feel about his errant ways?” Amit added.

What surely will spark further controversy is the revelation that some of the cowboys are actually married. A local woman said in the movie that she did not mind her husband sleeping with his “guest” for one or two nights.

“When my husband’s guests come, he stays with them. For a night or two, I don’t sleep with him. I don’t mind that,” the woman said.

The movie, completed in 2009 after a two years in production, premiered at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in South Korea on April 21.

Watch trailer 1 here

Watch trailer 2 here