Here's How To Watch 'Borat 2' This Weekend (For Free!)
2020 is exactly the kind of year where a film called Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan would make headlines with real political consequences. Only something so ridiculous would be legitimate enough to stoke the garbage fire that is this year's election campaign trail. So when former New York City mayor and Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, makes an appearance in a film and shows himself in a "compromising" position, well, you can bet all eyes are on Borat.
Okay, but let's back up for a second. How did we get here? How do we watch this so-called compromising scene?
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, AKA Borat 2, is the sequel to the fan-favorite mockumentary Borat, which features Sacha Baron Cohen in the role of Borat Sadigyev, a slapstick-y reporter (with a hell of a lot of exaggerated prejudices) on a mission. In Borat 2, that mission is bribing the "American Regime" to ensure his home country of Kazakhstan doesn't come under the Trump Administration's line of fire. Of course, given above compromising scene, that plan might have backfired.
How can I watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm?
Borat 2 landed on Amazon Prime Video on October 23, and you can watch it for free with an Amazon Prime or Amazon Prime Video subscription. If you don't have either, don't fret: You can sign up for a free one-month trial and cancel after watching Borat 2, should you so desire.
Okay, but...tell me more about this compromising scene.
Part of Borat's whole schtick is having interactions with real-life people who don't understand they're part of an elaborate joke. It's a satire. And as first reported in The Guardian, in Borat 2, actress Maria Bakalova, who plays Borat's 15-year-old daughter posing as a conservative TV journalist, interviews Giuliani and invites him back to her hotel. He agrees to come back with her, where there are hidden cameras positioned in the bedroom. He lies down on the bed and appears to reach into his pants and touch himself with Bakalova present. Cohen (as Borat) then rushes into the hotel room and proclaims: "She's 15! She's too old for you!"
To be clear, Bakalova is actually 24. But the fact that Giuliani might have thought he was about to have sex with an underage woman is...interesting, to say the least.
After news of the scene came out, Giuliani denied any wrongdoing. He wrote on Twitter, "The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar."
He clarified further during an interview on the Curtis & Juliet Show: “I had to take off the electronic equipment. And when the electronic equipment came off, some of it was in the back and my shirt came a little out, although my clothes were entirely on. I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, at that point, they have this picture they take which looks doctored, but in any event, I’m tucking my shirt in. I assure you that’s all I was doing.” Giuliani then called the police after Cohen burst into the hotel room.
At another moment during the scene, Giuliani also touches Bakalova's lower back. Other points throughout the footage could have been edited to make him seem more nefarious, but there's little doubt that he acted somewhat—if not utterly—inappropriately with a supposed female journalist. But you can make the call for yourself by tuning into Borat 2 this weekend.
You Might Also Like
