2) The Time His Films Got Repeatedly Banned In Major Countries
Unsurprisingly for a part of the world that regularly censors films for content, the Middle East in general didn’t take kindly to Borat. Where screening Bruno was outlawed in individual nations for its depiction of homosexuality (Ukraine for one cited “homosexual perversion”), Borat was straight up banned in every Arab nation except Lebanon.
Like Borat, Baron Cohen’s The Dictator – his fourth picture featuring one of his characters in the lead – also proved controversial. Again, only Lebanon screened Baron Cohen’s film out of all the Arab states, while it was banned in Malaysia and Kazakhstan and censored in Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Italy.
And despite obviously being such a risky commercial prospect, Hollywood amazingly has continued to fund Baron Cohen.