This article originally appeared on Complex.com
I would imagine the most ardent fans of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat scratched their heads when news of a sequel trickled out earlier this summer. Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 social satire feels like a lifetime ago, with its lasting impact reduced to memeification. The biggest question facing a follow-up seemed to hinge around whether or not it’d be able to chart new territory 14 years later. Turns out the truly unprecedented events of this year yielded the exact conditions needed for a compelling sequel.
The plot of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan—its full title, out now on Amazon Prime—matters only in the broadest sense. Upon returning from the events of the first movie, Borat’s actions overseas have embarrassed his home country of Kazakhstan. His punishment comes in the form of a sentence to a lifetime of hard labor—until he receives a shot at redemption. Having familiarity with the U.S., Borat is tasked to bring a gift in the form of a celebrity monkey to Vice President Mike Pence to restore Kazakhstan’s standing with America. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the monkey doesn’t make it alive. So Borat’s estranged, 15-year-old daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova, providing a masterful and fearless comedic performance), who has stowed away on the trip over, becomes the gift instead.