New Great Success for Kazakhstan

It's hard to forget the foreigner we all loved and hated- Borat. Even today, people can be heard quoting the movie every chance they get with sayings like "very nice, how much?" and "Wa wa wee wa!" with that absurd accent.

Others, such as the actual country of Kazakhstan, are also finding him hard to forget, or forgive.

The New York Times interviewed Erkin Rakishev, a Kazakh director who is planning on correcting everyone's opinions of the country and its people.

The article, "Taking Revenge on 'Borat,' Amorous Donkey and All," ran on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010 and took up the entire top fold of page A11 in the "International" section. I completely agree with giving this article so much space because this movie was incredibly popular and widely consumed when it came out in  theaters in 2006 and again on DVD. People still laugh about it years later.

This article was written by Clifford J. Levy who inputs his own opinion and observations throughout the article. Normally, I wouldn't think this would be the best choice for covering the upcoming debut of a movie, but in this case, his thoughts represent the troubling questions that are more than likely going through the minds of everyone reading this article as well.

For example, the whole point of Mr. Rakishev making this movie is that he was insulted by how Kazakhstan was represented in the movie. However, in his movie, his character is the brother of Borat, named Bilo (who is actually mentioned in the movie "Borat"), who escapes from a mental institute, gets rabies, and has sex with a donkey and ends up pregnant by it. Levy took it upon himself to ask in his article, "Remind us again how this is supposed to improve the image of Kazakhstan?" And this is exactly what you are wondering, too, isn't it?

Levy does a wonderful job of recording the director's reactions to his questions as well, noting giggles, fits of laughter, refusals to answer questions, etc. It really gave you a sense of who the director is, as well as a glimpse into how the movie is being made.

The quotes from the director that Levy used were character-revealing, thought-provoking, and humorous at times as well. I thought the story was brilliantly written. The article made me oddly excited and intrigued by the movie, and now I find myself hoping and praying that it does end up in the U.S. theaters one way or another.

Sacha Baron Cohen has some serious competition to look out for.