CINEMA AS BRANDING - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 176

nation as their country's entry in the race for Best Foreign Language Film
at the Academy Awards.
The film was delayed for technical reasons, rumored to include the
misallocation of funds by local crew members, the national pastime. But
when it finally came out and was sent to the Locarno Film Festival in
anticipation of a worldwide release, Kazakhstan's entry in the world of
ultimate glamor , scheduled for 2007, was unexpectedly hijacked - brutally
- by another film that rose to fame in no time, Borat : Cultural Learnings of
America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) by Sacha
Baron Cohen and the Twentieth Century Fox. “A mind-blowing comedy
classic,” according to Rolling Stone , it features Sacha Cohen as his “truly
original Kazakh character Borat Sagdiyev” from HBO's Da Ali G Show . 3
The film sparked a controversy on both sides of the Atlantic for mocking
Kazakhstan depicted as a misogynist and anti-Semitic society and humili-
ating people in a Romanian village where the film was partially shot with
the participation of local extras who had no idea about their actual roles in
the film. But this critical publicity only increased the popularity of Borat
that has been profiled in a whole range of media from Glamour , BBC , and
CNN, to Anthropology News . 4 The film grossed US$250 million, collect-
ing awards across the board, including Golden Globe's Best Actor and an
Oscar nomination in 2007 as a final blow to Kazakhstan's own pursuit of
fame.
Individual Kazakh politicians threatened to sue Mr. Cohen. In response,
the U.S. State Department declared Sacha Cohen (or Borat Sagdiyev?) a
“victim of censorship” in Kazakhstan, a “corrupt and undemocratic oil-
rich country.” 5 This news came up at the tail end of the publicity flood that
soon lost steam. President Nazarbaev is said to have admitted to the Prime
Minister Tony Blair that 'no publicity is bad publicity' (referring to Borat ,
3 From the cover of the DVD.
4 In Glamour , Borat's phrase “I like you. I like sex. Is nice” has become one of the “five truths to stick
to your fridge about love” (Feb. 2007: 167); CNN has provided the most extensive coverage and even
sent a reporter to Almaty ('With Borat fever sweeping cinemas everywhere…' 30 Oct., 2006; Borat
Invited to 'real' Kazakhstan 19 October, 2006; 'Borat' is the most excellent comedy, 6 Nov., 2006),
followed by BBC ('How Borat hoaxed America,' 23 Oct. 2006), The Sunday Times ('Welcome to my
World!' 15 Oct., 2006), and USA Today ('Finding the Real Kazakhstan' 17 Nov., 2006). In anthropol-
ogy, Borat inspired several authors who compared his work with what anthropologists do: Adam
Fish 'Mining Difference for the Culture Industry' Anthropology News , January 2007: 6-7; and Bruce
Grindal 'Borat as Trickster' Anthropology News , March 2007: 4).
5 'Borat seen as human rights victim by U.S. government' Reuters , March 7, 2007.