Borat Takes Kazakhstan By Storm
Ali G Creater Sacha Baron-Cohen's Latest Charachter Borat Sagdiyev Looks Set To Increase Kazakhstan Tourism.
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," has taken Britain and the USA by storm
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," has taken Britain and the USA by storm, stirred up a storm of controversy and protest but may bring unexpected benefits to Kazakhstan in the form of a potential increase in tourism.
Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional TV journalist from Kazakhstan. Like the character Ali G, Borat is an alter ego of comedian Sacha Baron-Cohen. In this Mocumentary film Borat tours the USA to prepare a report on American culture for his fellow citizens in Kazakhstan. Along the way he interviews a number of ordinary and not so ordinary Americans and these are at the heart of the controversy.
Borat is sexist, anti-Semitic and racist and Baron-Cohen uses this in interviews to get people to open up and express their own prejudices. The audiences love it but several of the people interviewed in the film are now complaining that they were conned into appearing. Several lawsuits are apparently pending and it will be interesting to see how the complainants explain away their on-screen prejudices. Although Borat, the character, is anti-Semitic Baron-Cohen is a devout Jew who observes the Sabbath whenever he can.
The film has also upset the good citizens of Kazakhstan. They complain that Borat portrays them as backward, sexist and racist. However in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Baron-Cohen laughed that off and said that he found it incredible that anyone could seriously believe that there was a country where “homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old.”
Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev after initially condemning Borat is now saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity. He believes that Borat will encourage people to find out more about his country. He also hopes that it will increase the number of foreign visitors.
The Republic of Kazakhstan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, lies between Russia, China and the Islamic world. It has huge gas reserves and its President aims to use this and their mineral resources to help it achieve a place amongst the 50 most developed economies in the world.
And with Borat helping to boost income from tourism that may happen sooner than the President thinks.
