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.

[MayflowerMadam]

"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."

I had a friend who went to the Olympics -- not sure when exactly -- and he said they guys from Belize did the same thing. eeeewwwww!

[GSlob]

"This goes right along with everything I've read about how things really worked over there."
Well, here is 'how things really worked over there.", with a minimum of poetic license [Venedikt Erofeev, "Moskva-Petushki"]:
...It started much simpler. Before me our work process looked like this: in the morning we sat down and played poker for money (do you know how to play poker?). Well. Then we got up, unwound the cable from the spool and put that cable underground. After that - we sat down again and everyone killed his leisure time after his own manner, for, after all, everyone has one's own dream and character: one drank vermouth, another, who was simpler, drank cologne "Freshness", and the pretentious one drank cognac in international airport Sheremetyevo. And then we went to sleep.
The next morning we at first sat down and drank vermouth. Then we got up, pulled out the yesterday cable and threw it away, because it was all wet, naturally. And then - what? - then we sat down to play poker, for money. And then we went to sleep, not finishing playing.
Early next morning we woke one another: "Alex! Get up to play poker!" "Stasik, get up to finish yesterday's poker!" We got up, finished poker. After that, even before daylight, having not drunk either "Freshness" or vermouth, we grasped the cable spool and started unwinding it, so that the cable would get wet and useless by tomorrow. After that – everyone to his leisure, because everyone has one's own ideals. And - see the beginning.
Having become a foreman, I simplified this process to the limit. Now one day we played poker, another day we drank vermouth, the next day - again poker, and then - again vermouth. The one with intellect completely disappeared in Sheremetyevo airport: he was sitting there drinking cognac. Of course, we didn't touch the cable spool - and if I ever suggested it, they’d laugh like gods and then beat me in the face, and after that they'd go - some to play poker, some to drink vermouth, and some to drink "Freshness".
And for a while everything was OK: once a month we sent our socialist obligations to head office, and they sent us salary twice a month. We, for example, wrote: on the occasion of coming centenary we undertake to do away with work accidents. Or: on the occasion of glorious centenary we undertake that each sixth of us is enrolled in correspondence college studies. What work accidents and studies can be there if we do not see the daylight due to poker, and if there are only five of us!...

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

No TP? What do they use?

[GSlob]

"No TP? What do they use?'
see # 12. Torn newspapers have been used [the only proper use for the MSM, BTW]. And in the classical antiquity the contemporaries of Socrates used smooth pebbles, usually 3 of them, if one is to believe Aristophanes.

[struwwelpeter]

Does this bring back fond memories?

[struwwelpeter]

This toilet was in a Ukrainian hospital, believe it or not ;-)

[struwwelpeter]

[patton]

Korea?

[GSlob]

What is there not to believe? I remember an advice tothe job interviewees on plant trips: "Always visit the bathroom. The toilet is the face of the company."

[struwwelpeter]

That was in Donetsk, but this one is from Kazakhstan:

[patton]

Yikes. We had better hygene on the klondike, at 40F below.

[GarySpFc]

Ahhh, but you did not show the classical backward toilet. :)

[GarySpFc]

Now that is a toilet.

[struwwelpeter]

What I hated about (most) apartments over there - after doing my duty/dooty, I like to wash up a little. In most non-"yevroremont" bathrooms, there's no sink.

[struwwelpeter]

There's nothing worse than the mess after a night of vodka and red caviar.

[GSlob]

The discussion has become decidedly sh*tty, which is only right and proper for such a sh*tty subject. The photo in # 50 settles the question of barbarity and primitivism once and for all.

[denydenydeny]

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.

This, from the country whose allies look like the "mugs, pugs, thugs" scene in Blazing Saddles.

[struwwelpeter]

Here's a place I had in a town near Lugansk. It had a sink, but no hot water - and the cold water only ran for one hour a week.

Over there, they would use the bathtub as a cistern and heat up water on the stove to take sponge bathes or wash clothes. The waste water from bathing/laundry was for flushing to john.

[A.J.Armitage]

Russia have inferior potassium!

[GSlob]

Well, from a saying "toilet is the face of a company' [cf. # 49] one could logically progress to 'the face of a country". Actually, not too bad an acid test.