[uhhfcuvv]

> Kazakhstan is generally about one of the most secular countries in Eurasia)

Presumably this is one reason why Sacha Baron Cohen chose Kazakhstan to be Borat's hometown - if he had picked an Islamic country he'd be risking a beheading in the streets of London.

[Mediterraneo10]

He chose Kazakhstan because he was unlikely to meet anyone who knew about Kazakhstan or was from Kazakhstan. Originally the Borat character was an Albanian named Christo, but there were too many Albanians coming to London by the late 1990s.

[tzs]

I wonder why he didn't use a fictional country? That would insure that he wouldn't meet anyone from there. He could even pick one that has been used before, and put a couple references to that prior use, to give fans a bit of trivia to notice.

For example, use Franistan, and have a reference to the Maharincess of Franistan's 1952 visit to New York.

[visarga]

Yet the cow-inside-house scene was filmed in Romania and attributed to Kazakhstan. Borat hired some gypsies, told them to put the cow in the house - the gypsies are simple people and would do any silly thing for a little money. Later, when they saw the movie, they were furious, claimed they've been duped.