In September 2020, the sequel Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was officially confirmed to have been secretly filmed, completed, and screened, a few weeks after Baron Cohen was spotted driving a pick-up truck in character as Borat around Los Angeles. The sequel was released on 23 October 2020, by Amazon Studios.
At the behest of the Kazakh Ministry of Information, reporter Borat Sagdiyev leaves Kazakhstan for the "US and A", the "Greatest Country in the World", to make a documentary about American society and culture. He leaves behind his wife, Oksana; his companions are his producer, Azamat Bagatov and a pet hen.
In New York City, Borat sees an episode of Baywatch on TV and immediately falls in love with Pamela Anderson's character, C. J. Parker. While interviewing and mocking a panel of feminists, he learns of the actress' name and her residence in California. Borat is then informed by telegram that Oksana has been killed by a bear. Delighted, he resolves to travel to California and make Anderson his new wife. Azamat insists that they drive because of his fear of flying which stems from the September 11 attacks, which he believes was "the work of the Jews". Borat takes driving lessons and buys a dilapidated ice-cream truck for the journey.
During the trip, Borat acquires a Baywatch booklet and continues gathering footage for his documentary. He meets gay pride parade participants, politicians Alan Keyes and Bob Barr, and African-American youths. Borat is also interviewed on a local television station and proceeds to disrupt the weather report. Visiting a rodeo, Borat excites the crowd with jingoistic remarks, but then sings a fictional Kazakhstani national anthem to the tune of "The Star-Spangled Banner", receiving a strong negative reaction.
In Atlanta, Borat finds a hotel but is kicked out when he offends the front desk worker by talking and dressing like the African-American youths he met earlier. Staying at a bed-and-breakfast, Borat and Azamat are stunned to learn their hosts are Jewish. The two escape after throwing money at two woodlice, believing they are their hosts transformed. Borat attempts to buy a handgun to defend himself, but is turned away because he is not an American citizen, so he buys a bear instead.
An etiquette coach suggests Borat attend a private dinner at an eating club in the South. During the dinner, he offends the other guests when he lets Luenell, an African-American prostitute, into the house and as a result, they are both kicked out. Borat befriends Luenell, who invites him into a relationship with her, but he tells her that he is in love with someone else. Borat then visits an antique shop, in which he clumsily breaks various Confederate heritage items.
At a hotel, Borat sees Azamat masturbating over a picture of Pamela Anderson and inadvertantly reveals his real motive for traveling to California. Azamat becomes livid at Borat's deception, and the situation escalates into a nude brawl which spills out into the hallway, a crowded elevator, and then into a packed convention ballroom.
Azamat abandons Borat, taking his passport, all of their money, and the bear. Borat's truck runs out of fuel, and he begins to hitchhike to California. He is soon picked up by drunken fraternity brothers from the University of South Carolina. On learning the reason for his trip, they show him the Pam and Tommy sex tape which reveals that she is not a virgin. Despondent, Borat burns the Baywatch booklet and, by mistake, his return ticket to Kazakhstan.
Borat attends a United Pentecostal camp meeting, at which Republican U.S. Representative Chip Pickering and Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice James W. Smith, Jr. are present. He undergoes a religious conversion to Christianity and forgives Pamela. He accompanies church members on a bus to Los Angeles and soon finds Azamat dressed as Oliver Hardy. The two reconcile and Azamat tells Borat where to find Pamela Anderson. Borat finally comes face-to-face with Anderson at a book signing at a Virgin Megastore. After showing Anderson his "traditional marriage sack", Borat pursues her throughout the store in an attempt to abduct her, until security guards intervene.
Borat visits Luenell and they return to Kazakhstan together. They bring several American customs and traditions back to his village, including the apparent conversion of the people to Christianity (the Kazakh version of which includes crucifixion and torturing of Jews) and the introduction of computer-based technology, such as iPods, laptop computers and a high-definition television.
Except for Borat, Azamat, Luenell, and Pamela Anderson, none of the characters are portrayed by actors.[4][5][13] Most scenes in the film were unscripted.[4] In most cases, the film's participants were given no warning on what they would be taking part in except for being asked to sign release forms agreeing not to take legal action against the film's producers.[14]
Principal photography was underway in January 2005, with Todd Phillips as the director. Baron Cohen caused a near riot in what ultimately was the rodeo scene in the final cut of the film.[15] Phillips left the production after filming of the rodeo scene due to creative differences with Baron Cohen,[16][17] and Larry Charles stepped in to direct.[18] In Charles' version of the film, the character of Azamat was added.[18] An interview with Baron Cohen by Rolling Stone indicated that more than 400 hours of footage had been shot for the film.[19]
The Kazakhstan depicted in the film has little or no relationship with the actual country, and the producers explicitly deny attempting to "convey the actual beliefs, practices or behaviour of anyone associated with Kazakhstan" in the "all persons fictitious" disclaimer. The scenes showing Borat's home village were filmed in the Romanian village of Glod, which is primarily Roma.[20] The name of Borat's neighbour, Nursultan Tulyakbay, is a cross between the names of then Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and opposition politician Zharmakhan Tuyakbay.
No Kazakh language dialogue is heard in the film. Borat's neighbours in Kazakhstan were portrayed by Romani people, who were unaware of the film's subject until after it premiered. Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) commonly speaks Hebrew (due to his mother being Israeli and being fluent in the language) throughout the film, mixing with phrases of Polish. Romanian was spoken at the beginning of the film in the Romani town. The Cyrillic alphabet used in the film is the Russian form, not the Kazakh one, but most of the words written in it (especially the geographical names) are either misspelled or make no sense at all. The English words are typed on an English keyboard with a Russian language setting. The lettering on the Lockheed L-188 Electra in the beginning of the film is merely the result of Roman characters on a reversed image, and promotional materials spell "BORДT" with a Cyrillic letter for D substituted for the "A" in Faux Cyrillic style typically used to give a "Russian" appearance. While Baron Cohen speaks Hebrew in the film, Ken Davitian (Azamat) speaks Armenian.[21]
The DVD included several deleted scenes from the film, including Borat being questioned by police at a traffic stop, visiting an animal shelter to adopt a dog that could protect him from Jews, getting a massage at a hotel, and visiting an American doctor. There is also a montage of scenes cut from the film, including Borat taking a job at Krystal and taking part in an American Civil War reenactment. The menu of deleted scenes also includes an intentionally tedious supermarket sequence with an unusually patient supermarket owner (Borat repeatedly asks about each product in the cheese section of the store and the owner responds the same way: "That's cheese"), an actual local TV news report about Borat's rodeo singing, and a final "happy ending" scene about Borat appearing in a Kazakh show titled Sexydrownwatch, a Baywatch clone that also starred Azamat, Luenell and Alexandra Paul. A scene in which Borat "started pretending he was being arrested" was filmed, but was removed under the threat of legal action by prison officials when they learned that the "documentary" was a satire.[22] In an interview, one of the film's writers, Dan Mazer, confirmed that there was a scene filmed but cut in which Borat observed the shooting of actual pornography with actress Brooke Banner. Mazer stated that the scene was deleted so as not to compete with the naked hotel fight, but hinted it might be included in future DVD releases.[23] In a 2016 interview on Conan, Cohen elaborated on the deleted scene in which he was featured in the pornographic film.[24]
Borat was previewed at the 2006 Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, on 21 July 2006.[25] Its first screening to a paying audience was during the 2006 Traverse City Film Festival,[26] where it won the Excellence in Filmmaking Award.[27]
The film's official debut was in Toronto on 7 September 2006, at the Ryerson Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival. Baron Cohen arrived in character as Borat in a cart pulled by women dressed as peasants. Twenty minutes into the showing, however, the projector broke. Baron Cohen performed an impromptu act to keep the audience amused, but ultimately all attempts to fix the equipment failed.[28][29] The film was successfully screened the following night, with Dustin Hoffman in attendance.[30]
In Israel, a proposed poster depicting Borat in a sling bikini was rejected by the film's advertising firm in favour of one showing him in his usual suit.[31] The film helped popularize the term "mankini".[citation needed]
Borat had its public release on 1 November 2006 in Belgium. By 3 November 2006, it had opened in the United States and Canada, as well as in 14 European countries. Upon its release, it was a massive hit, taking in US$26.4 million in its opening weekend, the highest ever in the United States and Canada for a film released in fewer than 1,000 cinemas[33] until Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert in 2008.[34] However, its opening day (approximately $9.2 million)[35] was larger than that of the Hannah Montana concert (approximately $8.6 million),[36] leaving Borat with the record of the highest opening day gross for a film released in fewer than 1,000 cinemas. On its second weekend, Borat surpassed its opening with a total of US$29 million.[37]
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