Maria Bakalova As Borat’s Daughter Is the Best Part of ‘Borat 2’

To say that there’s a lot going on in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm—the Borat sequel releasing on Amazon Prime on October 23—is an understatement. But all of the best parts are thanks to Maria Bakalova, the Bulgarian actor who plays Borat’s 15-year-old daughter, Tutar.

Sacha Baron Cohen has been doing the character of Borat—a bigoted Kazakh reporter—for over 20 years now, yet he manages to add a fresh coat of paint to the schtick by inventing a fictional daughter. Borat discovers he has a daughter he never knew (“I have a non-male son?”) as he is preparing to once again leave Kazakhstan for the U.S., this time on a mission to deliver a monkey as a gift to Vice President Mike Pence. Tutar begs Borat to take her with him, and when he refuses, she stows away in the monkey’s shipping container. When Borat finds his blood-covered daughter and dead monkey in the shipping crate, he decides Tutar will make a suitable gift for Mike Pence instead—after she receives a full makeover, of course.

Thus, Cohen and Bakalova become a comedy duo. They make for a hysterical pair of weirdos, a united front of absurdity in their filmed interactions with real people, none of whom realize they are in Borat’s subsequent moviefilm. All of the best scenes in the film feature the two of them together. They shock attendees of a staged cotillion in Georgia with an obscene “fertility dance.” They trick a pastor at an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy clinic into insisting Tutar keep the baby her father put in her stomach. (He doesn’t realize the baby is a plastic figurine from a cupcake that Tutar ate.) And of course, as you’ve likely heard about already, they pull an epic prank on Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer to the president, which hinged almost entirely on Bakalova’s performance. Suffice to say, she nailed it.

While Cohen has made a career out of staying in character in real-life demeaning situations, Bakalova has never appeared in a mainstream American film before. She certainly never before been asked to keep a straight face while calmly informing a pastor, “It will hurt my asshole,” in an exaggerated accent, or tell Rudy Giuliani, “I feel like Melania Trump,” with a flirtatious smile. Yet she does all that and more in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Give her an Oscar and a Showtime series, in that order. Here’s a little more about the actor who stole the show in Borat 2.

Who plays Borat’s daughter in Borat 2?

Borat’s daughter Tutar is played by Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova. There was some confusion when press materials from Amazon Studios originally credited someone named “Irina Nowak,” who doesn’t seem to exist, but the film’s official credits reveal her real name.

Who is Maria Bakalova?

Maria Bakalova is a 24-year-old Bulgarian actor, who, before now, hadn’t appeared in any American films, according to her IMDb page. But after this week, Americans are sure to know her name—especially given her starring role in a prank she and Cohen played on Giuliani in July.

Press for the film has been limited, given that Cohen and his team shot the movie in secret over the summer. But earlier this week, Bakalova made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmy Live! alongside Sacha Baron Cohen, both of them in character, where she mostly spoke in Bulgarian while Borat “translated.” (Cohen speaks a mix of Hebrew and Polish as a stand-in for Kazakh in the film.) In one bit, Bakalova demands Kimmel’s pants, and the late-night host eventually relents.

What else has Maria Bakalova been in?

Though the Borat credits say the film is “introducing” Bakalova, she’s appeared in several Bulgarian films and TV shows, including the 2018 film Transgression, where she played a young woman entangled in a relationship with an aging musician; the 2020 romantic comedy Last Call.

But after her breakout role in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, it seems likely American audiences will be seeing a lot more of Bakalova in the not-so-distant future. Very nice!

Watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm