Sacha Baron Cohen Takes on the Dictators
Will the Arab world take to Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest character, The Dictator, or will it complain as hard and as bitterly as Kazakhstan did over Borat’s characterization of their country?
Cast very much in Gadaffi’s robes, it’s one thing when Arabs laugh at themselves, quite another when the perpetrator comes from distinctly Jewish lineage, backed up by “Zionist Hollywood funding” as one web site put it.
Cohen himself is likely just trying to be funny (and no doubt succeeding), but it will be interesting to see how much leeway Arab audiences in the Middle East give him – that’s assuming the film gets a general release.
