Is Borat real or staged?
BORAT is back on American screens for the hotly anticipated sequel to the infamous 2006 mockumentary.
‘Subsequent Moviefilm’ sees Sacha Baron Cohen return as ‘journalist’ Borat Sagdiyev – but how much of the film is actually real?
Borat is back on American screens for the hotly anticipated sequel to the infamous 2006 mockumentary[/caption]Is Borat real or staged?
Viewers were shocked to discover that nearly all of the scenes in Borat’s original 2006 film were real.
During the film, Borat interacts with ordinary Americans in a journey across the nation.
Sacha Baron Cohen filmed the 2020 sequel without anyone knowing, alongside accomplice Maria Bakalova who plays Borat’s 15-year-old daughter Tutar.
It is hard to say with certainty how much of ‘Subsequent Moviefilm’ is “real” though most of the film’s scenes feature real people who are unaware they are in a ‘Borat’ sequel.
One scene sees Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani caught on camera lying on a bed tucking in his shirt with his hand down his pants and Tutar nearby.
Giuliani went to the hotel room thinking he was being interviewed about the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response.
Giuliani has his hands in his pants when Baron Cohen rushes in wearing an outlandish outfit.
Baron Cohen, who was disguised as part of the crew, screams that the young woman is 15 years old, “the oldest unmarried woman in Kazakhstan”.
Up to that point, there is no indication she is underage.
But Giuliani calls the scene a “complete fabrication”, and told the New York Post that Baron Cohen “didn’t get me”.
However Baron Cohen has told Digital Spy he wants views to “come to their own conclusions” about the scene.
How much of the ‘Subsequent Moviefilm’ is fake?
Some of the film’s scenes were staged or partially staged, and certain actors were aware they were participating in a movie.
Deadline reports that the premise of one scene was explained in advance to Holocaust survivor Judith Dim Evans, ahead of an interview in which Borat is highly antisemitic.
It is claimed that there is footage of Evans and a friend who accompanies her in the scene being told that Baron Cohen is Jewish and “playing an ignorant character as a means of Holocaust education”.
The movie is also dedicated to Evans who died shortly after its release – though her family have since threatened a lawsuit claiming she was not aware it was satirical.
In one outrageous scene where Borat and Tutar perform a “fertility dance” at a Debutante Ball, members of the public in Macon, Georgia were reportedly paid to attend the event.
Will Davis, the publisher of the Monroe County Reporter, wrote that the “movie company sent us a nice email” the event, and offering them $100 to attend.
But they had no idea that Tutar would later flash her private parts as part of the dance routine, and Davis said the crowd was left “with mouths agape wondering what had just happened”, Distractify reports.
Most of the scenes in the Borat sequel are not staged[/caption]What has the reaction to Borat 2 been?
‘Subsequent Moviefilm’ has largely seen a positive reception from critics.
However, some film critics have noted that the film fails to live up the original, with the New York Times claiming there is “nothing in this moviefilm that matches the elegant social experiment of the first”.
But others have been more positive, with Rolling Stone writing it is the “comedy we both need and deserve right now”.
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But others have slammed the controversial film, including President Trump who labelled Sacha Baron Cohen a “creep”.
And his personal attorney, who is targeted in the film, called the film “a hit job” in an interview with WABC on Wednesday October 21.
President Trump labelled Sacha Baron Cohen a “creep”[/caption]