Borat film opens TIFF's midnight madness

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's long-awaited Borat movie makes itsNorth Americanpremiere Thursday night as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness program.

The title character in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is one ofCohen's most popular characters. The comedian first gained popularity in North America with Da Ali G Show.

Borat Sagdiyev is an often smiling TV personality from Kazakhstan who tours the U.S., ostensibly to deliver TV features to an audience back home. But the character is also crude, chauvinistic and anti-Semitic, and gets much of his comedy from acting as offensively as possible around Americans to see their reactions.

It follows Borat as he takes a road trip acrossAmerica on a Holy Grail-like quest of Canadian actress Pamela Anderson. But the film, directed by longtime Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David collaborator Larry Charles, is mostly an opportunity to show Borat in as many squeamish situations with an unsuspecting public.

Cohen describes the film as a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry."

But the Cambridge University-educated comedian has faced criticism, particularly from the Kazakhstani government, for his portrayal of Borat and depiction of Kazakhstan as a boorish, backward state. The country's Foreign Ministry threatened to sue him after statements he made hosting the MTV Europe Music Awards.

In response to the threat, Cohen issued a response in Borat character, saying after recent reforms that "Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

Cultural Learnings is scheduled for wide release in November.