PressEthic

Despite a slew of negative reactions to the controversial hit comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a Kazakh paper has gone so far as to call the movie the film of the year. According to a Reuters article:

"Cultural Learnings is certainly not an anti-Kazakh, anti-Romanian or anti-Semitic ... It is a cruelly anti-American movie," the newspaper said. "It is amazingly funny and sad at the same time."

"I think this is the best film of the year," the correspondent, Andrei Shukhov, wrote.

This review comes as somewhat of a surprise, considering the film was not screened in many Russian and Kazakh movie theaters due to its offensiveness, and that the governnment in Kazakhstan threatened to sue Sacha Baron Cohen last year for the negative portrayal of the country. An article on ABC.com last year discussed the potential lawsuit. Earlier this year, Kazakhstan officials even met with President Bush to discuss the country's image.

Having seen the film, which I found very funny, it was evident that the joke was not on Kazakhstan, as Cohen insisted. Borat was an equal-opportunity-offender, criticizing Americans from all different walks of life. Perhaps the review given by the Kazakh paper, Karavan, will help soften the anti-Borat sentiment. Personally, I found the satirical film offensive and hilarious. Two thumbs up.