17 December 2013 | 11:37

Latvian filmmaker to respond to Borat for Kazakhstan

Victor Vilks. Photo a courtesy of rocknfun.livejournal.com

The Latvian filmmaker Victor Vilks is planning to make a new movie that will be a response to Borat of behalf of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports citing Baltija.eu. Victor Vilks’ debute movie Teacher (“Prepod” in Russian) was filmed in Kazakhstan in May 2013. Batyrkhan Shukenov, a famous Kazakh singer, stared in the movie. “I had a goal to make a film about students for young people. There are only Asian faces in the movie. But at the same time, everyone speaks Russian. I think Kazakhstan proves it wrong that Russian language means Russia. On the contrary, Kazakhs are very patriotic. Interestingly, such patriotism has nothing to do with nationalism. There is patriotism, but there is no nationalism. Our characters speak fluent Russian without a trace of an accent, ” said the filmmaker. The filmmaker noted that Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat hurt the patriotic feelings of Kazakhstan citizens. “We aim is to restore the image of Kazakhstan, notably with British financing,” said Vilks. He is planning to start filming the Kazakh-British movie in 2015. The British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen wrote, produced and also played the main character Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist traveling through the United States in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006). On his journey he discovers the US as a country full of strange things and finds himself in weird situations throughout the movie. There is no Kazakh language in the film and Romanians portray the Kazakhstanis. The movie had a significant resonance and Kazakhstan was outraged. However, after some time it started giving more diplomatic responses to the movie. Yerzhan Kazykhanov, was the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2011 said that thanks to Borat the number of issued Kazakhstani visas grew 10 times. He noted that this movie helped attract tourists to Kazakhstan.

The Latvian filmmaker Victor Vilks is planning to make a new movie that will be a response to Borat of behalf of Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports citing Baltija.eu. Victor Vilks’ debute movie Teacher (“Prepod” in Russian) was filmed in Kazakhstan in May 2013. Batyrkhan Shukenov, a famous Kazakh singer, stared in the movie. “I had a goal to make a film about students for young people. There are only Asian faces in the movie. But at the same time, everyone speaks Russian. I think Kazakhstan proves it wrong that Russian language means Russia. On the contrary, Kazakhs are very patriotic. Interestingly, such patriotism has nothing to do with nationalism. There is patriotism, but there is no nationalism. Our characters speak fluent Russian without a trace of an accent, ” said the filmmaker. The filmmaker noted that Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat hurt the patriotic feelings of Kazakhstan citizens. “We aim is to restore the image of Kazakhstan, notably with British financing,” said Vilks. He is planning to start filming the Kazakh-British movie in 2015. The British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen wrote, produced and also played the main character Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist traveling through the United States in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006). On his journey he discovers the US as a country full of strange things and finds himself in weird situations throughout the movie. There is no Kazakh language in the film and Romanians portray the Kazakhstanis. The movie had a significant resonance and Kazakhstan was outraged. However, after some time it started giving more diplomatic responses to the movie. Yerzhan Kazykhanov, was the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2011 said that thanks to Borat the number of issued Kazakhstani visas grew 10 times. He noted that this movie helped attract tourists to Kazakhstan.

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