Americans had forgotten about documentary blockbusters after the famous documentary by Michael Moore. Film critics said that Moore’s success is due to the ultra-political, super egocentric and hyper-reality unique mixture. (I know, I’m using big words, but they’re not mine, but rather the film critics’).
Currently, the film “Borat” has appeared on movie screens in America. The film is neither documental, nor artistic. This is simply the commercialized yet a little post-modernist version of Moore’s film with the help of the “subjective camera” and only one hero.
British comedian Sasha Baron Coen incorporates the main character-journalist of Kazakhstan descent Borat Sagiyev, who is traveling to America. The film is like a politicized yet humorous documentary. After watching the film, it’s hard to decide whether it was good or vulgar. First of all, you may get shocked after watching the Armenian audience. Borat’s producer-the second main character-for some reason speaks Western Armenian. Ken Davidyan plays the producer. I don’t know who he is, but he’s fat, has thick eyebrows, bald, a cheater and vulgar. He gets naked at the end of the movie and fights with Borat. That scene is probably the most vulgar scene in the entire film. Borat says ironic things about the Muslims, makes fun of the Jews and homosexuals, talks about how far behind Kazakhs are and how narrow-minded Americans are. Borat offends feminists, puts his excrement on the table, tries to rape Pamela Anderson, presents neo-fascist students, extremist spiritual figures and their belief (however, the viewer doesn’t know what sect they belong to in the end). In the film, Borat is uneducated, vulgar and cynical, but at the same time he is rather diverting.
The movie theatres are packed to see this film and “Borat” has already made 100 million dollars. The British actor’s daringness is praiseworthy. He dared to present Muslims as extremists, especially now in a time when we have the Iraq war, he made fun of the Jews in America and presented Americans as stupid and narrow-minded. The thing I found most interesting was that Americans were laughing wholeheartedly during the film.
Russia has prohibited the showing of this film in movie theatres. Russians are afraid that the film may hurt the feelings of the Muslims and Kazakhs living in Russia.
Before the film premiere, the Embassy of Kazakhstan sent a letter of protest to the White House. Before the visit of Nazarbayev, Kazakh-Americans had organized a public meeting in Washington, demanding not to show the film. The film offends and misinterprets the morals, women and national hygiene of Kazakhs…Kazakhstan is not shown as a country. It is compared to the American reality. In fact, for some reason, the film ends with the photo of Ilham Aliyev. It wasn’t clear as to what he has to do with Kazakhstan. So, for the first time, an American film may be officially prohibited to show in Russia, Kazakhstan and most probably Azerbaijan as well. The prohibition may serve as an advertisement for the film and if that happens, the film’s DVD version may just make its way to the CIS shortly after. Russian “pirates” react quickly to the demands of the market. However, rarely would Armenian “renters” show the film prohibited in Russia in Yerevan. No Armenian would want to hurt relations with the Kremlin because of some movie. The worst thing is that the British actor and the scenarists have compared Armenians or made them equal to the Kazakhs in the film. It’s clear that it doesn’t matter what language they speak in. In fact, Borat’s Armenian producer uses Armenian curse words that even the average Armenian wouldn’t use. So, this is one of the cases when even the Armenian language heard in foreign films is not in the least good.
The author of the film has said that he simply wanted to have fun, that’s why he hasn’t stayed true to the scenario, morality, esthetics, statistics, language or history. This was mainly done for commercial purposes. Rumor has it that the sequel to the film is still ahead.