Borat spoof film banned in Russia

BBC ^ | 11/09/2006

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

Russia has banned the hit comedy film, Borat, which has been accused of poking fun at Moscow's neighbour and close ally Kazakhstan.

The film stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a spoof reporter on a trip to the US.

A senior official at Russia's culture ministry has told the BBC it will not provide a distribution licence.

The film has described as a "mockumentary" which follows Mr Cohen's travel across the US.

On the way, he has a series of real life encounters with unsuspecting Americans in which he makes the most outrageous, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic comments.

'Not amused'

It has proved to be a big hit in the US and Europe, where it opened last weekend.

Some reviewers have described it as "hysterical" and "the funniest film of the year".

But there are others, not least the government of Kazakhstan who say it is deeply offensive.

One Kazakh diplomat says that the depiction of his country as violent, primitive and oppressive bears no resemblance to reality.

And it seems the Russian authorities are also not amused.

A culture ministry official in Moscow told the BBC it had refused to issue a distribution licence because the film could potentially humiliate different ethnic groups and religions.

The official would not give any further details, except to say the distributors had the right to appeal against the government's decision.

[A CA Guy]

It had four full frontal male nudity that was not needed as well.

It will be all over Russia on DVD.

[A CA Guy]

I think Russians will laugh their butts off watching the DVD.

[FreedomCalls]

When I was in a village in Siberia, they would take a dump in the outhouse, but place the used TP in a bucket by the bench to be burned.

Unusual for an outhouse, but that is standard practice in places where the sewage disposal system won't handle TP. Whenever I visit the Greek islands there is often a covered bucket by the toilet for the used paper, even in very expensive hotels.

[Dustbunny]

Guess it's because of my age. What I have seen of Borat I did not think was even slightly funny.

[Zhang Fei]

When I was in a village in Siberia, they would take a dump in the outhouse, but place the used TP in a bucket by the bench to be burned. Now THAT takes getting used to.

This is a Chinese practice as well - at least in private homes. Not in Hong Kong. In China proper. Is it disgusting? Sure. But as long as you stay in hotels, you don't have to put up with it.

[Caipirabob]

When I was in a village in Siberia, they would take a dump in the outhouse, but place the used TP in a bucket by the bench to be burned.

In Brasil, there were some women, and I mean beautiful women, and I won't go into detail further, who throw the used TP in the garbage bucket and blow their noses in the sink (not using paper.)

Gave me the shakes and still does to this day.

[GarySpFc]

When I was in a village in Siberia, they would take a dump in the outhouse, but place the used TP in a bucket by the bench to be burned.
Now THAT takes getting used to.

I have never seen that in all of my trips to Russia. However, I have to admit the smell in some of the public restrooms would knock an elephant off his feet. Once in Volgograd, I went in a pay restroom, which was sparkling clean, but the smell was so overpowering I spent 10 minutes catching my breath after leaving the room.

[Thunder90]

Kazakhs speak both Kazakh and Russian.

[antiRepublicrat]

OTOH, there's a reason the Russians called the MiG-25 the "Flying Restaurant" -- it used 500 liters of pure alcohol for cooling and hydraulics. A MiG-25 air base practically lived off the alcohol stores for the plane.

[GSlob]

Well, at Khrunichev plant [ICBMs and airspace] the employees once managed to siphon off the entire railroad tankcar of ethanol - they lifted the sealed lid by just a bit, put in a long flexible hose, and tossed the other end of the long thin tube over the fence, hiding it in a large bush which grew there. By the time it came to light, 60 tons ethanol tankcar was completely empty - I used to know some participants.

[antiRepublicrat]

the employees once managed to siphon off the entire railroad tankcar of ethanol

That must have been one hell of a party.

[GSlob]

It was not a party - they would be coming to that bush with rather large storage vessels [say, about the size of a 5 gal gasoline can], fill those, clamp the hose again and walk away with the filled cans. The thing actually took them a few weeks, for they could not have a pilgrimage to that bush so as not to attract excessive attention. The plant railroad yard people were in on the scheme - they had to park that tank-car in the yard far corner next to the fence and not to disrupt the arrangement for a while.

[antiRepublicrat]

This goes right along with everything I've read about how things really worked over there. It's kind of hard to maintain military readiness when the ground crew has sucked all the coolant out of the plane, or because the ICBM plant doesn't have that tanker of ethanol it needed.

[ShandaLear]

Wawa-woo-wee...

[Calvin Locke]

There's an old Russian joke, probably from the Borscht Belt heyday, that goes something like "In a Russian drama,
everybody dies. In a Russian tragedy, everybody dies. In a Russian comedy, everybody dies, but they die happy."

I'm dredging my memory, but I think I first heard it from Soupy Sales, back in the 1960s.

And it probably should have stayed in the 1960s.

[edpc]

Yeah, I heard some examples of Russian humor from a former co-worker. Great guy, hard worker, but the jokes were....to be kind....offbeat.