Borat's home village in the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan didn't look much like Kazakhstan. The filming actually took place in Romania. The villagers looked Eastern European, not much like ethnic Kazakhs (or even Russians) from Kazakhstan. Throughout the movie I was actually thinking they looked more like Georgians or people from the Caucasus. (A side note: Kazakhstan actually has many ethnicities, including Russian, Chinese, Korean, and, yes, ethnic Kazakhs). The folks in his movie didn't look like ethnic Kazakhs (check out the picture here for a look at boys from a village outside Kazakhstan's capital Almaty). These boys are Kazakhstani (like saying "American" as opposed to "European American"). Some of these boys are ethnic Kazakh, some are a mix of Kazakh and Russian. You'll see they actually look either Asian or a mix between European and Asian.Borat's sidekick in the movie is not Kazakh or even or Kazakhstani, he's ethnic Armenian. As I suspected when I saw the name "Ken Davitian" in the film credits (and because the Armenian diaspora in LA is active in the film/production industry), Ken Davitian is indeed Armenian. Check out Katy Pearce's blog: http://armenia.neweurasia.net/?p=75, Azamat is actually speaking speaking in Armenian to Borat throughout the movie! She said, "This took place throughout the film, probably for 10 or 15 minutes total. Most of what was said matched the subtitles, with one exception where some conversation was just placed over a shot of a house." She said, "Often Borat would reply back in gibberish (as I understand a mix of Hebrew and some other languages), but would occasionally pick up on one key Armenian word and use it in his reply."
Also, check out Eric Weiner's "The Real Kazakhstan:What does Borat get right and wrong about his native land?" on Slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/2152789/
Posts
