Kazakh envoy seeks to dispel Borat image

New Haven (Connecticut): Kazakhstan's envoy to the United States on Tuesday defended his country against "misconceptions" caused by the hit comedy film Borat and its misogynistic, anti-Semitic, fictional Kazakh TV reporter.

Speaking at Yale University, Kanat Saudabayev presented the former Soviet state as a modern nation of well-educated professionals and a major non- OPEC oil exporter.

The movie satirises the United States and pokes fun at a fictional Kazakhstan as a place where people drink fermented horse urine among other questionable practices.

"I hope it would give you some ideas about what the real Kazakhstan is about and not the misconceptions provided in the film by Sacha Baron Cohen," said Saudabayev, whose government briefly threatened a lawsuit over the portrayal last year.

The film, whose full title is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, was a surprise box-office sensation, grossing $248 million worldwide and earning an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted screenplay.

British comedian Cohen also won a Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a comedy or musical for his playing Borat Sagdiyev, a cluelessly offensive Kazakh journalist with a thick mustache, rumpled gray suit, wild-eyed grin and boisterous catch phrases like "sexy time!"

A village in Romania stood in for Kazakhstan in the film.

Saudabayev, who is also Kazakhstan's ambassador to Canada, touted his Central Asian country's economic and social progress to the group of about 200 faculty and students, saying it serves as a model for other former Soviet states.

Some students at the Ivy League school said they were impressed. "It changes the perception of Borat because Kazakhstan is not portrayed in the media a lot and so we get a unique perspective from the ambassador," said Atish Sawant, a first-year student.

But Maria Blackwood, another student, said she understood Cohen's satirical intent.

"It sort of makes fun of Americans more than Kazakhs themselves. I think I agree with the sentiment that Sacha Baron Cohen picked a country that no one would, or the stereotypical American would, be aware of," she said.