The Opium Den

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Borat Banned in Russia - Couldn't Be Better News!

November 9, 2006

Hey, you know we're all about hyping Borat here as much as we can at First Showing! And this is some, may I say, quite intriguing news! From Variety, apparently the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography in Russia banned Borat this week because it considers that some material may be too offensive for its residents. Here's what they had to say:

“The film contains material that some viewers may consider offensive to certain nationalities and religions,” Yury Vasyuchkov of the licensing body was quoted in local press.

“There was some kind of explanation that the movie might create tension between races and nationalities because of its far-from-simple humor,” Gemini's Nikolai Vorunkov was quoted in local press, adding that “Borat” was now unlikely to open before the New Year, if at all.

In the horror genre, the best publicity news to them is when someone faints or even dies while watching one of their films, and they love hearing about that sort of thing (not the death, but just that it was that shocking.) And although this may take a minor chunk of money away from profits, the publicity it brings is otherwise beneficial to the offensive comedy that Borat is.

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