Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Directed by: Larry Charles | 82 minutes | comedy | Actors: Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela Anderson, Ken Davitian

‘Borat’ is the new film by the alter ego Borat of Sasha Baron Cohen, the Briton of Jewish descent who was previously responsible for the successful character Ali G. Borat is a reporter from Kazaghstan, a very poor country in which prostitution and racial hatred, especially against Jews, are the order of the day. It is understandable that the real Kazaghstan cannot see the humor in this, but when watching the film it is difficult to imagine that there are really spectators who will believe that Kazaghstan is faithfully portrayed.

The country that should be more concerned about ‘Borat’ is America. It is the customs and traditions of that country that Borat really manages to attack in his skits. For example, we see Borat in New York, where he tries to introduce himself to passers-by, who react very hysterically to this. We see people cheering at a rodeo when Borat is a little too positive about the war in Iraq and we hear the unvarnished opinions of a group of American students about women. Shamelessly let the people go when they start a conversation with the otherworldly Borat.

The writers of the screenplay have thought carefully about how to put together the long row of skits in a feature film. A subtle coherence has been created based on a few attributes, including a live chicken and a huge dildo, which recur in different places. Furthermore, a tension has been created that carries the film, starting with Borat’s assignment to make a documentary in America, but soon this gets sidetracked and the real storyline emerges: Borat’s search for the woman of his dreams. : Pamela Anderson.

The film is very funny and original, but could have been more successful as a feature film if the scenes had been drawn out a little longer. In most scenes in which Borat meets ‘real’ people, he quickly becomes too furry to be taken seriously. At the end of the film this happens a few times, for example when Borat desperately enters a church and there quickly attracts the attention of the happy faithful, perhaps the most fun scene in the film, precisely because there is a build-up of tension. Most of the other scenes are too short to speak of any build-up. Borat: the otherworldly reporter who tries in vain to contact the Americans. On that abstract level, ‘Borat’ is also a political film. America’s foreign policy aims to spread democracy around the world according to the American liberal model, completely ignoring the otherness of other countries. The fact that this otherness can look completely idiotic from a Western point of view is what makes the entire political debate about multiculturalism so difficult. Borat reflects this cultural dilemma in a very original and funny way.