Borat Sagdiyev (Kazakh and Russian: Борат Сагдиев) is a fictional Kazakh journalist, created and portrayed by the English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
Humor is often derived from Borat being a foreigner and having strange customs, thoughts, and behavior. There is also a lot of toilet humor in the series. Borat hates Gypsies and is also Anti-Semitic.
The Borat character first appeared in short clips on "F2F - The Granada Talk TV Show" that Sacha Baron Cohen presented in 1996-1997.
Borat was born in the fictional village of Kuzcek, Kazakhstan to Asimbala Sagdiyev and Boltok the town rapist (who is also his mother's father). He has a 13-year-old son named Hooeylewis and 12-year-old twin boys named Biram and Bilak, as well as 17 grandchildren. He has an older sister named Natalya (whom he has claimed at different times to be either "the number four" or "number two prostitute" in Kazakhstan) and a younger brother, Bilo, who is mentally retarded. It is revealed that he has a second wife in addition to a mistress, a girlfriend and a prostitute.
Borat is shown to have been married several times, after first having been betrothed to his half-sister's plough while in his teens. His first wife Oksana was reported in the "Borat" movie to have been "broken" by a bear while taking his brother Bilo for a walk in the forest. The death of Borat's wife did not bother him; he thanks the man who brings him this "good news" — and celebrates by trying to marry Pamela Anderson and eventually reuniting with Luenell, a black prostitute he met while filming his documentary.
Borat is a professional journalist and announcer on Kazakh television. According to various in-character interviews with Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat learned at Astana University, where he studied English, journalism, and plague research. He claims to have created five new plagues which supposedly "killed over 5 million goats and whores in Uzbekistan."
Before this Borat was an ice maker, animal sperm retriever, gypsy catcher, and someone who removes dead birds from a computer.
Borat was a pagan for most of his life. However, in the movie he attends a Pentecostal church service and later converts his village neighbors to Christianity.
Borat greatly admires Joseph Stalin, and claims that both he and Stalin are strong men with powerful "khram" (genitals). He hates women's rights and was surprised to learn that women can vote in some countries. In his spare time, he enjoys playing ping pong, sunbathing while wearing a lime green "mankini", disco dancing, spitting, sitting on comfortable chairs, and taking pictures of women while they "make toilet".
Borat is shown in each episode of "Da Ali G Show", doing funny interviews with real people in the United Kingdom and the United States. The segments were shot in low-quality video to make fun of how poor Kazakhstan is and how it cannot afford good cameras. Of Ali G, Borat comments on his website, "I appear on Alee G shows–He idiot, but it give me lot of girls & pickles; I like..."
The Borat segments on "Da Ali G Show" use a rock and roll version of the Russian folk tune "Korobeiniki" as the theme song.
Was part of a six-part Ali G show originally on Channel 4 (UK) in March 2000.
Five Borat sketches were shown: "Etiquette", Hunting, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Henley. The "Guides" to "English Gentlemen", "Politics" and "Sport" were also filmed at this time but released later as part of "Ali G" DVDs.
A special shown on the E4 launch night (UK) in January 2001 known as "The Best of Borat."
Some of the best parts were the "Guide to Sport" and a some video of Borat's village in Kazakhstan. Though the village they used was really in Romania.
Shown as part of a six part "Ali G Show" originally on HBO (USA) in February 2003.
Six Borat sketches were shown in the form of "Guides" to "Dating," "Etiquette," "Acting," "Men," "Baseballs," and "The (Deep) South." A "Guide to Animals" was filmed, but released at a later date as part of an "Ali G" DVD. Alyssa Greenfill was also in it.
Shown as part of a six-part "Ali G Show" originally on HBO (USA) in July 2004. (C4 was the UK channel where Ali G and Borat originally appeared, and the series for America was a HBO/C4 co-production).
Six Borat sketches were shown: "Wine Tasting", "Politics", "Country Music", "Hobbies", "Buying a House" and "Jobs" (careers). A "Guide to Hunting" was filmed but only aired in the UK because it bothered animal rights people in America.
Borat appeared in the Ali G movie "Ali G Indahouse" as a Kazak diplomat. Borat greets Ali G with a hug and kiss, but Ali pushes him away. Borat then calls Ali a "cocksucker". In the end, Borat performs a hip-hop song with superstar Max Allard.
Subtitled "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", the movie "Borat" is mockumentary comedy. Most of those appearing in the film are not paid performers, but real people whom Borat met on his journey. The movie was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and directed by Larry Charles. It premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released across Europe and North America on November 3, 2006.
The film follows Borat in his travels across the United States as he commits cultural solecisms and exposes a few American ones. Over the course of the film, Borat falls in love with Pamela Anderson after watching a rerun of "Baywatch" and vows to make her his wife.
The film opened at # 1 in the United States, taking in $26.4 million on a limited release of 837 screens during its first weekend, beating "Fahrenheit 9/11" as the biggest opening weekend for a film released in fewer than 1,000 cinemas. Cohen celebrated the release of the movie with a host of promotional 'in-character' interviews.
On November 9, 2006, the Russian Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography issued an opinion, citing "it could offend viewers in relation to certain ethnic groups and religions."
The movie expanded its release on the second weekend to 2,566 screens, where it took in an additional $29 million.
In 2007, Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy."
With a production budget of $18,000,000, the movie earned $128,501,044 in the United States and another $128,848,505 in the rest of the world. $257,349,549 in total as of March 2007.
In 2007, a book from Cohen was released entitled, "Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan/ Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A.", with humor about both countries in the same style as movie.
Though he pretends to speak Kazakh, Borat really speaks in Hebrew mixed with some Polish and other Slavic language phrases, such as "" and "" (Polish "how are you" and "thank you"). As such, the film became popular in Israel.
Borat also lapses into Hebrew while purporting to sing the Kazakhstani national anthem at a Savannah Sand Gnats game. He kept repeating a famous Hebrew folk song: (; kum bachur atzel ve'tze la'avoda; "get up lazy guy and go to work [...]" ) [...] ; kookooriku kookooriku ha'tarnegol kara; "cock-a-doodle-do the cock has crowed"), and also called Kazakhstan a distant/desolate place (literally "hole" ()("hor")).
His producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) speaks Armenian, while his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) speaks Bulgarian
In the opening scenes in the town of Kuzcek, the villagers speak Romanian because these scenes were shot in Glod, Romania. As in the rest of the movie, what is spoken does not match the translation given in the subtitles. For example, when Borat's wife Oksana speaks, the subtitles show her telling Borat to "do something useful and dig his mother's grave," when she is actually telling him to go into "the devil's cunt."
Some say that Kazakhstan is not as bad as Borat says it is and that it is wrong of him to say such things.