Last weekend much of U.S. and A. became heroes. If theaters all throughout America weren’t filled, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan would not have been success. And had it not been success, as we all know, Borat would’ve been execute!
At this point everybody knows his bio: A gypsy catcher-turned-esteemed TV reporter in his native Kazakhstan, Borat has a well-documented family tree that includes a famous prostitute (his sister) and famous rapists (his father/father-in-law) and…blah blah blah–you’ve heard his story by now, based on the box-office numbers. But back in the real world, Borat: CLoAfMBGNoK is just a moviefilm, albeit one steeped in controversy, mystery, (probably) many pending lawsuits and more logistical questions than a $200 million special-effects extravaganza. Furthermore, Borat the character is the brainchild of one man.
Of course, this is not an expose of Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comic whose name would draw blanks in America until it’s mentioned that he’s the one behind everyone’s favorite [insert any negative prefix]-istic Kazakh reporter. Truth is, save for his fiancé, Wedding Crashers’ Isla Fisher, nobody’s really got “the dirt” on him–his paradoxically religious upbringing (Orthodox Jewish) and his collegiate accomplishments (a heralded dissertation on Martin Luther King, Jr. while at the University of Cambridge) aren’t exactly tabloid-worthy–a fact that makes Cohen’s conducting all interviews in character (aside from one out-of-character appearance each on The Late Show and The Daily Show) doubly satisfying for him. It also means when you see Borat, you don’t see Cohen playing him.
Borat Sagdiyev would have you believe he was born in 1972 in Kusek, Kazakhstan, but naturally he wasn’t really born till Cohen created and unleashed him to the world in 2000. Some form of Borat, however, can be traced back to 1994 and more so in 1998, when he became a regular member of England’s 11 O’Clock Show cast–which included future stars of the original Office series Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Crook. But it was in 2000, following Cohen’s successful stint on 11 O’Clock, that he was given his own show and freedom: Da Ali G Show, on which Borat was one of three personae inhabited by Cohen on the show. In 2003 the show traveled across the pond for one season in America on HBO. (It was ultimately enough content to comprise two full seasons.) Some say the reason the show has since been on indefinite hiatus is that because Cohen’s popularity has soared, unsuspecting interviewees are not so unsuspecting anymore.
So Borat took his act to the big screen following Ali G’s apparent finale in 2003, but there’s a reason he didn’t say “Jagshemash” on the big screen until now: People wanted in–then out. The first to be approached about a prospective Borat movie was Jay Roach, of Austin Powers and Meet the Parents/Fockers fame. He signed on then and stayed the course, co-producing the film along with Dan Mazer (Cohen’s longtime friend/collaborator/co-conspirator/cohort/Ali G co-writer), Monica Levinson (Zoolander) and Cohen himself. During that time, major Hollywood players like Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) and Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip) were attached, but following a little uncertainty for the project, Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) was brought on for good to direct. The teensy-weensy, underfed, (relatively) underpaid and altogether under-accommodated crew ultimately had the misfortune of serving as extras in the film to make it look legit and ease subjects’ minds–you know, so Cohen could then pounce…under the guise of sweet, harmlessly ignorant li’l Borat!
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On-set tactics certainly verged on the guerilla: There was a warrant out for Borat’s arrest in New York City; certain folks wanted to lynch Borat after his rendition of the Kazakh national anthem before a crowd of Virginia rodeo-goers; according to director Charles, they were pulled over by the Secret Service in Washington, D.C. (maybe Borat barking obscenities towards Uzbekistan drew their attention?), and stopped by police in Dallas; producer Monica Levinson spent a night in jail following an arrest for “borrowing” items to be used as props from a hotel; and the legitimacy of the release forms subjects were forced to sign to appear in the film was as vague (read: shady) as possible. In addition, just about everything you see is improvised with a script in place more as an itinerary than anything. And as per his commitment to authenticity, Cohen also took the six weeks necessary to grow out his hair and mustache–the approximate accumulative length of time his suit went unwashed, too, in order to smell more “foreign”!
That said, like any successful movie, Borat involves a little cinematic sleight of hand, even if it’s extremely difficult to point out. (SPOILER ALERT!) First of all, the prostitute in the film, Luenell Campbell, has a resume that includes not men paying for sex, but rather movies like The Rock and So I Married an Axe Murderer; yes, she’s an actress. As for Pamela Anderson being in on the gag, we’ll leave it at this: In real life, Cohen is quite well-known around the Hollywood community and has friends in high places, among them Madonna–whose 2000 “Music” video Cohen starred in as Ali G and who Borat just last week referred to as a “transvestite” during the MTV European Music Awards telecast–so it’s very difficult to believe she had no prior knowledge about the kidnapping scene and a movie that, more or less, centers around her. (Not to mention her reported “wink, wink” comments to press regarding the role and her being given “special thanks” in the press notes.) And of course Borat’s producer, Azamat Bagatov, is played by none other than well-traveled character actor Ken Davitian, but that tidbit hasn’t exactly been so hush-hush. Expect him (and Luenell) to now experience a Napoleon Dynamite-like novelty boon thanks to Borat.
Finally, how ‘bout Borat’s dialect?! A whimsical mixture of Hebrew and whatever else pops into Cohen’s mind at any given time–including but not limited to gibberish–the idioms and words passed off as “Kazakh” are certainly anything but. Below is only a partial glossary of Borat-speak–not including the countless vulgarities that cannot be referenced here. We couldn’t possibly call it anything other than:
BORAT-ORY: A GUIDE TO PSEUDO-KAZAKH TERMS AND PHRASES
-Chenquieh: “Thank you” (often used by Borat to “sign off” of a TV segment)
-Chocolate Face/Vanilla Face: “Black person”/“white person”
-Festival of Shurik: Annual one-day festival in Kazakhstan (according to Borat and only Borat) where it is appropriate to have “Sexy Time” with animals, minors and your own sister
-Great Success: General proclamation from Borat when something goes right
-High-Five: Borat’s general celebratory physical gesture when something is “Great Success”; Borat assumes all Westerners use the gesture with the same frequency in this context
-Jagshemash: Borat’s general greeting often meaning, “How are you?”
-Khram: “Penis”
-Krutzouli: “An insignificant or lesser species”
-Moviefilm: “Movie” or “Film”
-Pubis: “Pubic hair” (Borat claims it is of great value in Kazakhstan–“The third-largest export of Kazakhstan,” to be exact–and that it has many practical uses, including that of a scour-like cleaning apparatus)
-Running of the Jew: Festival in Kazakhstan (according to Borat and only Borat) during which citizens chase large paper-mache likenesses of Jews into wells and break the eggs they lay
-Sexy Time: “Sexual intercourse” (interchangeable with “Do a romance”)
-Sport of Shurik: Popular sport in Kazakhstan (according to Borat and only Borat), played during “Festival of Shurik,” where dogs are shot in the fields followed by extravagant parties
-Testes Satchel: “Scrotum”
-Vazhin: “Vagina”
-Wa-Wa-Wee-Wa: A non-specific term used by Borat to express excitement
