Sacha Baron Cohen’s hilarious “Borat Subsequent Movie Film” is a smash hit for Amazon, but not everyone is laughing, including unsuspecting civilians who were fooled into participating in it, including a Holocaust survivor who appeared with Cohen in a scene set in a Marietta, Ga. synagogue.
In the scene, Borat is dressed in an anti-Semitic disguise and chats up an elderly Jewish woman, Judith Dim Evans, who was under the impression that she’d be participating in a serious documentary about the Holocaust. Evans assures the clueless Borat that the Shoah did indeed happen, and the prankster and the bubbe embrace. Evans passed away earlier this year, but her estate filed a lawsuit against Amazon and Oak Spring Productions, alleging that they appropriated Evans likeness.
Evans’ daughter, Michelle Dim St. Pierre, filed an injunction on Oct. 13, seeking to force producers to remove her mother from the film. “Upon learning after giving the interview that the movie was actually a comedy intended to mock the Holocaust and Jewish culture, Ms. Evans was horrified and upset,” the lawsuit states. “Had Ms. Evans been informed about the true nature of the film and purpose for the interview, she would not have agreed to participate in the interview.”
But a Fulton County judge dismissed the lawsuit, and St. Pierre dropped the case. “Sacha Baron Cohen was deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with Judith Dim Evans, whose compassion and courage as a Holocaust survivor has touched the hearts of millions of people who have seen the film,” Amazon’s attorney Russell Smith said in a statement. “Judith’s life is a powerful rebuke to those who deny the Holocaust, and with this film and his activism, Sacha Baron Cohen will continue his advocacy to combat Holocaust denial around the world.”
Cohen dedicated the film to Evans’ memory in a title card that runs at the end of the film.
