'Offensive' Borat Movie Banned
Combined Reports
MOSCOW — The distributor of a hit Hollywood film featuring boorish Kazakh TV reporter Borat decided not to show it in Russian cinemas after officials advised it may cause offence, Russian officials said on Thursday.The film, the surprise No. 1 at the U.S. box office on its opening weekend, pokes fun at Kazakhstan and includes naked wrestling, toilet jokes and anti-Semitic satire as fictional hero Borat Sagdiyev makes a road trip across the United States.
Less than three weeks before a feature film about Borat, a character created by English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, was to open in Russian movie theaters, the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency refused to license it out of concern that the film could offend audiences in this country.
The movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," has thus become one of the first non-pornographic films to be banned since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
It was scheduled to open in 300 theaters nationwide Nov. 30.
The movie opened in the United States on Nov. 3, and took in $26.49 million in its first weekend, setting a box-office record for movies that opened in fewer than 1,000 theaters.
Even before it opened, the movie drew the ire of the Kazakh government, which initially found little to laugh about in Cohen's depiction of Kazakhstan as a country whose people are addicted to horse urine and are fond of rape, incest and shooting dogs.
"The film contains material that some viewers may consider offensive to certain nationalities and religions," said Yury Vasyuchkov, head of the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency's department that licenses movies for distribution to theaters.
The distributor, Twentieth Century Fox in Russia, can appeal the agency's decision in court, Vasyuchkov said, adding that he had never heard of a non-pornographic movie being banned. Hundreds of hard-core pornographic movies are currently licensed by the agency for distribution.
"We got the news today," said Nikolai Vorunkov, deputy general director of Gemini Marketing, the movie's distributor in Russia and a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox. Vorunkov said he remained hopeful that a solution could be found.
"There was some kind of explanation that the movie might create tension between races and nationalities because of its far-from-simple humor," said Vorunkov, adding that the movie was now unlikely to open before the New Year — if ever.
The film can be downloaded illegally on the internet, however.
Cohen's movie has been criticized for being offensive to Jews, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, homosexuals and Americans.
The decision to ban Cohen's movie on the grounds that it could incite ethnic tension comes as the government faces charges of xenophobia for its campaign directed against Georgian businesses and illegal immigrants in this country.
Sergei Lukashevsky, director of the Demos Center, an independent civil liberties watchdog, said Wednesday that the agency was well within its rights to ban the movie.
"There is a provision on degrading ethnic and religious dignity in Russian law, but it is always subject to the personal interpretation of the officials who make the decisions," Lukashevsky said. "But these decisions should also be based on an expert assessment."
A spokeswoman for Russia's Federal Culture Agency, which issues licences for films to go on release, told Reuters on Thursday that Gemini approached the agency informally for advice on whether the film was suitable.
"They showed it to our staff, who, in private exchanges with the company, said from the agency's point of view there is material in the film that could cause offence to some confessions and nationalities," the spokeswoman said.
"It is laughable to say that we banned the film ... There has been no official request (from the distributor) for a licence so how could we turn it down?" she said.
In recent weeks, the Kazakh government has softened its position on the movie, even inviting Cohen to visit Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan itself has not banned the film, said Kazakh Embassy spokesman Denis Tsaryov, although he did add: "It would be hard to find a distribution company willing to handle this movie."
(Reuters, SPT)
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