Kazakhstan is looking to make their country a vacation hotspot and is now using a surprising movie in order to do so. Despite years of railing against Borat, the nation is finally ready to make amends with the film that made them a laughingstock. In fact, their tourism ministry is going as far as adapting one of the flick’s most famous quotes as its official slogan.
Several new commercials this weekend highlight visitors remarking upon Kazakhstan’s many attractions, leading up to an exclamation of “very nice!” before the advertisement ends. The unmistakable catchphrase was uttered by the satirical feature’s titular character back in 2006 and has since become a staple of pop culture.
Sacha Baron Cohen, the star of the pic, recently resurrected the role for the movie’s long-awaited sequel, which debuted on Amazon Prime last week. Throughout both installments, the protagonist constantly mocks his home country by proudly expressing their anti-Semitic, sexist and otherwise blatantly bigoted beliefs. He also makes the nation out to be impoverished, dangerous and downright backwards in many ways. For many people, this was their first exposure to the area.
This humor at their expense infuriated the people of Kazahkstan for years, but it appears that they’ve finally come around on the film, albeit reluctantly. The worldwide pandemic has probably made things very hard for the Kazakh tourism industry, but now that Borat is back in the news in a major way, they’re intent on capitalizing on the flick’s success in order to attract fans to the area. Whether or not this plan works remains to be seen, but it’s nice that they’re embracing a movie that they once so vehemently opposed.