Back in 2006 the world got to know Borat Sagdiyev, a journalist from Kazakhstan created and portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen, which is sent to the United States to study the habits and customs of the American people so as to export them also to his country of origin. The first film dedicated to him met with great success mixed with just as much sensation, as it was shot as a huge fake documentary - called in jargon Mockumentary - in which the individuals who took part were completely unaware that a film was being made, showing the world an absolutely real cross-section of the American people.
Almost fifteen years later Cohen returns to take on the role of the Kazakh journalist, in a sequel that shakes even more violently the foundations of the contemporary Western system, more particularly the American one. With Borat: Sequel to Film Cinema, which in the style of its predecessor takes the long subtitle of "Delivery of a portentous bribe to the American regime for the benefit of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan", the socio-political satire is the most desecrating and lashing seen in recent years. In this feature film released on Amazon Prime Video last October 23 directed by Jason Woliner and written by Cohen himself, the screenwriter and protagonist poured and showed to the whole world in the most oxymorical way possible the surreal reality we live in, including a large parenthesis dedicated to Covid-19, permeating the film with a constant anti-republican message.
A perpetual derision of current events
Borat: Film Cinema sequel begins exactly 14 years after the first, a period that the journalist spent in forced labor for having ridiculed the entire nation of Kazakhstan. To try to return to the good graces of his people, therefore, he decides to accept the offer of his president which consists of deliver a surreal "bribe" to the American Vice President Michael Pence, so as to regain a minimum credibility for one's country. Unfortunately, this bribe suffers a tragic disappearance, caused by the daughter of Borat himself, who in order to try to return to Kazakhstan without being executed decides to offer the poor fifteen-year-old as a gift.
The situations in which the two protagonists will come across will be from the most disparate and demented, all assembled perfectly for ridicule what America is today. Social and political satire is present in every frame and in every scene the viewer hangs in the balance between laughter and annoyance at what is shown. Although some sequences may border on the edge of endurance, ending in gags that make use of male or female private parts too often, Cohen's purpose for this sequel has been fully centered: show the hideous mixture of hatred and violence that the United States has turned into in recent years, in perpetual laughter through clenched teeth.
The shooting of Borat; The sequel to Film Cinema, moreover, were carried out in a few weeks and in the midst of the current one Covid-19 pandemic, allowing more than a few reflections also on how the American people experienced the quarantine. Thanks to the perfect narrative of this feature film, Cohen also manages to show and ridicule both the various conspiracy theorists and the manifestations of the deniers, and the virus itself, thanks to an ending that openly quotes "The Usual Suspects" by Bryan Singer and in which we discover what really lies behind this health emergency in a truly hilarious twist.
Borat's (or rather, Cohen's) vision of America
the message anti-republican and anti-Trump it is clear from the first minutes of the film. If with the first Borat film the political satire was more veiled, in this sequel Cohen continually lashes out against the current American government, directly attacking prominent figures such as Vice President Michael Pence or Rudy Giuliani, simply showing the viewer a glimpse of the reality that the American people - and why not, the rest of the world - are experiencing but which they do not seem to notice. Parodying the cliché of a man from the Middle East allowed the leading actor to push himself to the limit in every situation or speech, so as to to test the American people as if it were a gigantic social experiment, pulling out sequences that border on the absurd: from cosmetic surgeons recommending breast surgery on a 15-year-old girl, to cage sellers who don't get bogged down when Borat buys one to make his daughter sleep, passing from conspiratorial yokels who think the Clintons drink children's blood.
In this feature we also find a strong feminist message, relegated above all to the character of Tutar, the daughter of Borat, played by a talented Maria Bakalova. Thanks to this character, both the backwardness of the uses and customs of Eastern countries with regard to women, and above all, is shown the objectification of the female sex in Western society, ridiculing events such as debutante dances, and which reaches its climax with the destabilizing scene starring Rudy Giuliani. According to Cohen, in fact, it was necessary to release this film at this precise moment, a few days before the presidential vote, so as to show these representatives of the Republican party to the whole world, especially taking into account the simple but equally chilling message that appears at the end of the feature film.
