We asked Kazakh celebrities what they think of ‘Borat’. The verdict was less than ‘very nice.’
By Almaz Kumenov and Isabelle Khurshudyan,
Matt Sayles AP
ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan was thrust into a unflattering spotlight 14 years ago with Sacha Baron Cohen’s hit “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Cinemas in the former Soviet republic refused to show the film. The Kazakh government took out a four-page ad in the New York Times defending itself.
But the central Asian country’s reaction to the sequel, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which debuted on Amazon last month, has been more mixed. Kazakhstan’s own tourism board adopted the fictional Borat character’s catchphrase — “very nice” — for a new advertisement campaign showing off the country’s natural beauty.
We asked four Kazakhs — a filmmaker, comedian, artist and TV personality — for their thoughts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/entertainment/trailer-borat-subsequent-moviefilm/2020/10/21/d2063836-3c06-4500-893f-7719d32eab6e_video.html
Nurtas Abambay, actor and director:
“I saw mockery not over Kazakhstan, but over those viewers who could believe that
Courtesy of Nurtas Adambay
Nurtas Abambay, an actor and director in Kazakhstan.
such a country could exist in the modern world. And I did not really take it as something insulting or humiliating toward me,” said Adambay, who has his own production company.
Others aren’t as willing to brush the franchise off. The hashtag #cancelborat made the rounds on social media after the sequel’s release with comments about how the franchise is racist. U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, William Moser, recently commented to Kazakh state TV that, “It’s just a movie.”
[‘Very nice’: Kazakhstan makes ‘Borat’ catchphrase its official tourism slogan]
Adambay said he understands “those who are outraged over using the name of our country and our flag by ‘Borat,’” but “such reaction provides even more hype to this film.”
“Just imagine the country as a person,” he added. “Would a self-sufficient person ever get into a skirmish with someone who has made fun of him? I don’t think so.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters, comedic movies were among the most popular in Kazakhstan. But what’s considered funny hits on actual societal realities for Kazakhs — something Cohen didn’t purport to do with the “Borat” movies.
In an Adambay-directed hit “Kelinka Sabina” that overtook some Hollywood films at the Kazakh box office in 2014, a wealthy city girl marries a village boy and the cultural differences lend themselves to laughs — if you understand the local customs.
Murat Dilmanov, satirical illustrator:
Dilmanov said “the humor of Borat is incomprehensible to the majority of people in Kazakhstan, although the film is somewhat funny.”
Inspired by Borat’s signature skimpy lime green swimsuit, Dilmanov drew Borat as a mermaid sitting atop a stone and then posted it to his social media accounts. “How would a sculpture like this look in the center of the Sairan Lake?” he wrote, referencing a reservoir in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.
Dilmanov said the international attention “Borat” brought Kazakhstan was a good thing, even if it was a little infamous.
“At least people look on the map to find out if this is a real country,” he said. “But there are also negative consequences. A friend of mine who lives in the United States told me that Americans of Kazakh origin began to experience bullying.”
The Kazakh American Association made a similar point in a letter addressed to three senior Amazon executives and published on social media shortly before the film’s official launch. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The association said that the movie “may cause irreparable harm to Kazakhstan’s national image and people as its comedic nature may justify ethnicity-based harassment,” adding that “this film incites violence against a highly vulnerable and underrepresented minority ethnic group.”
Nurlan Batyrov, comedian:
Courtesy of Nurlan Batyrov
Nurlan Batyrov, a comedian in Kazakhstan.
Batyrov, who has an Instagram following of more than 1.2 million for his short video clips, said he would have never paid any attention to the movie if not for Kazakhstan’s outraged reaction.
“I don’t find it a really funny comedy, as I don’t like a genre that contains racist jokes. At the same time, I don’t feel offended,” Batyrov said, adding that the influx of tourists to the country after the first movie was a plus.
Batyrov acknowledged that Kazakhstan’s culture is completely different from what’s depicted in the movie, but he was pleased to see the country’s tourism board lean in to the publicity by using Borat’s “very nice” catchphrase in its own promos.
“I don’t think ‘Borat’ is tarnishing the image of Kazakhstan,” Batyrov said. “Many people around the world never knew such a country existed to begin with. Moreover, what image are we talking about if we see other things that really shame our country? … People in Kazakhstan seem more eager to combat mythical external threats than addressing internal, and actually important, issues.”
Adil Liyan, TV host:
Courtesy of Adil Liyan
Adil Liyan, TV presenter in Kazakhstan.
Adil Liyan said Borat was “an entertaining movie, not a documentary,” but it wasn’t his taste.
“[I] don’t like the humor where someone bolsters himself with contempt for others,” he said.
“The ‘Borat’-style humor feels more American. [Kazakh] satire and jokes are quite different,” added Liyan, who was the first presenter of “X Factor” in Kazakhstan.
But Liyan agreed with Batyrov that the “Borat” movies are a good opportunity for introspection as a country. He pointed to an incident this past summer, when a group of beachgoers in western Kazakhstan bludgeoned a seal until it was unconscious to take a picture with it. The story was picked up by Western news outlets.
“I call this behavior ‘Boratshina,’ and we need to eradicate it so that no one could tell us that Borat is a real Kazakh character,” he said. “I think the main impact of “Borat” is that we started to value our country even more.”
Whenever Adil Liyan has traveled outside of his native Kazakhstan, he has been occasionally asked what his country is really like — specifically if it’s as portrayed in the “Borat” movies.
“I recommend using Google,” deadpanned Liyan.
Khurshudyan reported from Moscow.
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