When British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed a Viennese gay fashion reporter in his comedy Brüno this year, he may have done as much to shape Austria’s global image as he did for Kazakhstan through his equally acerbic Borat.
But unlike Kazakhstan, where the government put up a fight against being portrayed as primitive anti-Semites, a lot of Austrians were quite happy with the unusual depiction of their country. In a survey, only 20 per cent feared damage to Austria’s reputation from the movie, and the Vienna tourist office reported an increase in tourism from Britain during the summer months.
