When residents of the quiet fishing community of Barbate, southern Spain, agreed to take part in a feature film they awaited the premiere confident the locally born director would capture the essence of life on the Atlantic coast.

It seems they were wrong. The locals claims that rather than depicting an easy-going community ekeing out a living from the sea, the film brands their town a haven for drug smugglers and dope fiends.

When Pablo Carbonell, who has a house in the area and claims the work was inspired by his love for the coast near Gibraltar, first asked the council to help with his directorial debut, it looked like the town could get a sympathetic ear, especially given the film's working title, Tuna in Paradise.

Some residents worked as extras; others took the film crew out in their boats. The council even shut parts of the town for filming.

But when the film hit cinema screens there were changes. The film had lost the "paradise" from its title to become Tuna and Chocolate (slang for hashish), and the town was seen to have a big drugs trade. Such significance was underlined when the director told the press that Barbate lived off tuna when it was in season, and hashish when it was not.

Council spokesman Jesús Davila said yesterday: "The film suggests the people of Barbate are just penniless drug dealers. And that's not true."

Carbonell countered: "It addresses a set of problems such as unemployment, drug trafficking and immigration, but without losing the optimism of the people of Barbate ... At its heart there's a marvellous treasure: we love each other a lot and we are good people."

Nicolás, a fisherman who took the film crew out in his boat, told El Mundo newspaper: "They have cheated us all. They've called the film Tuna and Chocolate and we don't live from that at all."

But behind the bar in La Parada on Barbate's main street, Francisco the barman was more sanguine. He said: "Of course there are people here who sell cannabis, you can get cocaine too if you want. But then you get that everywhere, don't you."