Reviewed by Robert Metcalf

SACHA BARON COHEN has been doing the rounds as Borat for some years now, beginning with Borat’s Guide to Britain in the first Ali G series. He has now developed the Borat story into a feature-length film – often a difficult exercise for a previously incidental character. Cohen has achieved this successfully, however, and his film is a testament to his great comic gifts.


Borat employs the format familiar from the Ali G series – short skits and interviews with unwitting subjects – while also developing an absurd narrative that subverts the American Road Movie genre, including such bizarre antics as an extended naked-man wrestle along the way. From New York to Los Angeles, Cohen’s disarmingly charming Borat produces his familiar blend of satire, ironic observation and vulgarity.

This is a very funny film, provided you are not easily offended and that you enter into Cohen’s absurd world. As we all know by now, Borat is a Kazakhstani television personality who provides a window on the world to his fellow countrymen (as well as reporting on such domestic events as “the Running of the Jew”). Having explored Britain several years ago, Borat has now turned his eye to the United States. He arrives in New York with his portly companion Azamat to begin their documentary. The New York strangers Borat attempts to befriend are full of suppressed rage and are deeply suspicious of strangers, especially strangers who release chickens on a crowded subway and try to kiss fellow male passengers. Borat’s original mission is forgotten when he happens to glimpse Pamela Anderson on his hotel TV. Borat is in love, and thus begins his cross-country quest to find Pamela. What ensues is a series of misadventures and encounters with Americans across the country.

Borat is described by one southern belle at a dinner party as a charming young man who could quite easily be Americanised. This is shortly before he returns from their toilet with a bag of his own waste and then attempts to introduce into the genteel group a prostitute he has hired for the evening. Yet the film works precisely because Borat is such a charming character. His smiling, innocent manner allows him to draw people out and so he experiences some revealing encounters. The more reasonable a person’s reaction, the more outrageous Borat’s antics become. It is amazing the extent to which some people will remain polite in the face of Borat’s persistent and frequently offensive questioning. Conversely, the more unreasonable a person’s sentiments, the more Borat will agree and laugh along with them, coaxing some alarming statements out of people who assume they’re off the record – like the all-American rodeo enthusiast who casually agrees with Borat’s anti-gay comments, or the used car dealer who calmly discusses with Borat the efficacy of his intended vehicle for running down gypsies.

It is unsurprising that Cohen was assaulted during the course of shooting this film. He manages to tap into a dark undercurrent of American anger at times, and his Middle Eastern appearance and camp demeanour land him in difficult circumstances on several occasions. It is interesting to note that when Borat attends a large Evangelical church meeting in the Midwest he is prepared to be “saved” by the pastor, and ventures no inappropriate remarks or irreverent humour in the face of a boisterously devout congregation. Evidently there are some lines even Borat won’t cross.

This film is well worth seeing. You will not laugh until you cry as some reports may suggest, but you will be consistently amused, entertained and engaged by the original comic brilliance of Sacha Baron Cohen. This is the kind of comedy that will leave catch-phrases stuck in your head for some time afterward. It is a successful development of the Borat character, and director Larry Charles has made a sensible decision in not allowing the film to progress beyond an hour and a half – just enough Borat to leave us interested in seeing more, as the film concludes to the strains of the bizarre “national anthem” of Kazakhstan.