| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 31 sec.) ; 160432190 bytes |
| Summary |
It could be the most misrepresented and misunderstood nation on earth. It's unlikely you'll find farm animals roaming inside family homes while women haul ploughs in the field. There's no such thing as a designated town rapist and anti-Semitism is not a rampant and unifying national phenomenon. The Kazakhstan of Borat Sagdiyev is - for Kazakhs and for many outsiders - an appalling fiction. But is the real story a great deal better?At first glance it's a dizzying wonderland. Kazakhstan's capital Astana is a kaleidoscope of cutting edge architecture, gob-smacking public buildings and glittering shopping malls. It's a kind of inside-out Dubai where even when it's below freezing, snowing and bitterly bleak outside, Kazakhs in cossies splash and cavort in the perpetual summertime of a high rise aquatic centre.It is of course a world away from the mediaeval, incestuous, determinedly backward country portrayed by so-called journalist Borat Sagdiyev in his TV assignments and in his epic, big-screen adventure "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Borat's misreporting - or more accurately his alter ego, British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen's mischievous lampooning - brought very little benefit to Kazakhstan. And while western audiences might have laughed uproariously, Kazakhs grumbled and cursed. Kazakhstan's all-powerful, long serving leader Nursultan Nazarbayev banned it.And like his President, Kazakh movie director movie director Erkin Rakishev has taken Borat's slurs particularly badly and has sworn vengeance on the bumbling hack. "He's the devil, the devil's accomplice, the anti-Christ, the Satan. Your Harold Holt disappeared without a trace so will Borat disappear too, but on dry land. Damn it I'll shoot him, I'll destroy him." - Erkin Rakishev, Film DirectorIronically Rakishev's revenge - a movie titled "My Brother Borat" - won't be shown in Kazakhstan either. It turns out the people portrayed as rogues and ruffians with thick, unwashed hides are really very sensitive."We wanted to show that we too are a dynamic modern state with good and bad qualities. We are not barbarians. But there are many embarrassing moments. Some people might take it badly." - Erkin Rakishev, Film DirectorBut look more deeply into this enormous land-locked, oil rich and prosperous place - as Correspondent Eric Campbell has for this week's program - and you'll find a place with a host of profound problems and disturbing realities; a President with little regard for democracy and freedom of speech, who has grown astoundingly wealthy in the post-Soviet boom-time and who is turning the capital in a multi-billion dollar vanity project many are predicting will soon be officially renamed Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan has become his personal fiefdom.Whatever the mood for change in the Middle East there'll be no popular uprising in Kazakhstan. In his country President Nazarbayev rules the roost and has the last laugh |
| Event |
Broadcast 2011-03-29 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Agriculture and state.
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Borat (Motion picture)
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Cities and towns -- Social life and customs.
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Collective farms.
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Criticism and interpretation.
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Kazakhstan -- Astana.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Campbell, Eric, host
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Rakishev, Erkin, contributor
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Spratlen, Pamela, contributor
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Trubachyova, Tatyana, contributor
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