Borat 2 star Maria Bakalova in the face of gender stereotypes and discrimination
The 73-year-old teacher of Bakalova has been humiliating her publicly in her homeland Bulgaria since her Golden Globe nomination
Plenty of international film critics, journalists, and cinephiles wonder what is the secret behind Borat 2 star Maria Bakalova’s authenticity.
She plays the daughter of Borat — Tutar, who faces shocking treatment from every man on her way. The film explores gender inequalities in both the eastern and the western world. Her father, Borat, thinks women are subhuman creatures lower in the hierarchy than dogs, leading to his wish to offer her to a wealthy older man.
This man appeared to be Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and Trump’s attorney. Bakalova’s courage to participate in this social experiment and documentary scene in which Giuliani is ready to have sex with her struck a blow to the Republican’s reputation.
In a recent interview for Collider, Maria Bakalova said Tutar was supposed to become more feminist. “Because unfortunately, it’s crazy, but we are living in 2021 and there are still places around the world, there are still people that are believing that women are somehow not equal, which is crazy, “said Bakalova. Crazy or not, these places she is talking about are her own country Bulgaria. Moreover, it’s her story.
Bakalova won the role of over 600 other women from around the world. She is the first Bulgarian who has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a ton of other prestigious awards. Her success is unprecedented for her age, her country and even the whole region of the Balkans.
Amid these achievements, her former teacher from the National Academy of Theatre and Film prof Ivan Dobchev has given several interviews for Bulgarian media, which became the subject of much attention and public discussions in the country. He admitted he didn’t finish the film and described it as a “television attraction,” pointing out that it’s not his cup of tea. As a teacher of Maria, his professional opinion was: “She wasn’t my favorite one” (source).
When asked by the journalist whether Maria Bakalova “would have been elected Borat if she had more experience in serious theater,” Dobchev answered: “Maybe not. If she had more serious experience and were going in this direction, they probably wouldn’t have preferred her. They preferred her precisely because she was assertive and spontaneous. But she is not inexperienced, on the contrary. The experience is gained very quickly through these things — putting yourself on men or the audience. This quickly leads to experience, because most people — and artists, in particular, are vain and want to be desired at any cost.” He later said that thanks to his training, Maria had “read books she would never have read otherwise” (source) and described her as “intellectual in lingerie who is suited for perversions.” (source)
There is a certain irony that Rudy Giuliani represents Maria’s teacher Ivan Dobchev in Bulgaria. Patriarchal, sexist behavior and public insulting are typical in the country. Plenty of people didn’t find anything wrong in his words and allusions. Although many people reacted to the story, the film and theater guilds have not yet commented on the matter or civic organizations.
Watch Maria Bakalova on The Ellen Degeneres Show discussing the strong messages of Borat 2: “There are some really really strong messages how we should treat each other with love, respect, be kind because at the end of the day we are all equal, all human and your gender should not matter, your ethnicity should not matter, your religion, your race, your sexual orientation should not matter because we are here, we are human and we should support each other and love each other more.”
