Borat Will Not Speak Russian
Culture and History, Kazakhstan13 Comments
Being multilingual and speaking French, German and Spanish in dubbed films, Borat will not have Russian as one of his languages. The film about the adventures of a Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev was banned for distribution to Russia’s cinemas, as reports The Moscow Times. Apparently, the audience, particularly, certain nationalities and religions can be offended by the film, according to Yury Vasyuchkov, head of the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency’s department that refused to license the film for distribution to theaters. This is the first non-pornographic film to be banned in Russia, says distributor “20th Century Fox”.
This is an interesting news taking that Kazakhstan itself did not ban the film, and, as the Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman claims, did not ask Russia to do it.
BBC Russian has comments on this news, and some of them are a curious reading. Check these two out:
“Stop advertising him… He has got enough money, good for him! Those who want to watch the film will still do it via Internet… I think it is right to ban it though, Kazakhstan is our good neighbour, we should not make fun of good neighbours. If only Borat made a film about Georgia…”, by [YuryNik], Parma, Italy.
“Respect to Russia for banning the disgusting film. Freedom of one’s fist ends near one’s face, in the same way, artistic freedom does not mean one can insult the whole countries…”, by Rossiski kazha, Texas, USA.
I am only wondering if Uzbekistan will show the film now.
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That is shocking, even for Russia. This quote is pretty indicative of the growing divide between Russia and the West:
Kazakhstan really isn’t banning the film? Are they going to show it in theatres? I would be shocked if the same country that banned his kz domain name allows his movie to become widely available in any medium.
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Kazakhstan hasn’t banned it, but the biggest and, for all intents and purposes, only film distributor has refused to show it. Whether the government had a hand in that or not, no one knows.
And indeed, if only Borat was Georgian, it’d be playing in every theater in Russia 24/7
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Still, that means that the government will make no effort to prevent it from hitting the streets, which means Kazakhs will have no problem seeing it (not that they would even if the government tried to prevent it).
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I look forward to watching the movie after having heard and read so much about it. And Leila, if you have a DVD, come over and let’s watch it together with mom! :-)
It starts next week in Geneva. Somehow, I don’t know to go see it with my non-Kazakh friends – even though we all know it’s all just a joke, sharing that joke and having fun together over it is something else.
your sister :-)))
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I meant I don’t know if I want to go see it with my non-Kazakh friends. (My English starts to sound like Borat’s one! Oh my god!)
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Gaini,
I will get a DVD and we will watch it together with mum. It’s nice. You like? I like!
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James,
many Kazakhs would love to watch the film (I think Almaty people can go to Bishkek to do it, if Kyrgyzstan decides to show it, that is, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t). And banning his website in kz domain was long time ago, when Kazakhs were young and unexperienced in how to deal with this sudden fame :)
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Leila, I think that there are pirated DVD versions galore on the Kazkah market now no need to go to Kyrgyzstan to watch it.
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Anti-Semitism in Russia is too serious for the Kremlin KGB dictator and his puppet Russian Orthodox Church to make fun from it. The second reason to ban this film for Russian Jew-haters is now to allow to one more Jew to make big money on Russian soil. The third reason -since 2005 Russia, EU and the UN are official observers of the Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic -Organization of the Islamic Conference most members of which are buing arms from Russian arsenal and are members or co-cons pirators of fixing high prices on oil worldwide of the anti-American oil cartel OPEC.
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Anti-Semitism in Russia is too serious for the Kremlin KGB dictator and his puppet Russian Orthodox Church to make fun from it. The second reason to ban this film for Russian Jew-haters is not to allow to one more Jew to make big money on Russian soil. The third reason -since 2005 Russia, EU and the UN are official observers of the Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic -Organization of the Islamic Conference most members of which are buing arms from Russian arsenal and are members or co-cons pirators of fixing high prices on oil worldwide of the anti-American oil cartel OPEC.
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I think Borat is indeed a Russian character (despite the name) that is why Russia is so sensitive to the film.
I know of no Kazakh who behaves like him but I can tell you tons of stories about Russians with exactly same attitude (not actions since they are beyond the realm of reality anyway) as Borat…
All in all the film is about Russian mentality… I think ;)
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[...] http://kazakhstan.neweurasia.net/2006/11/08/borat-will-not-speak-russian/ Chapter idea: “Visions for the Future” [...]
[...] not at all received well in the region, resulting in it being banned not only in Kazakhstan, but also in Russia. Borat’s character has been described as “…a misogynistic, wife-beating Kazakh journalist [...]