Moore learnt bravery from Borat

Documentary film-maker Michael Moore has said that he found the nerve to sail into Guantanamo Bay after being inspired by Borat.

Moore met the creator of the comic Kazakhstani reporter, Sasha Baron Cohen, at a film festival last year and thanked him for helping him find the courage for his latest film Sicko.

Referring to Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Moore told the Associated Press that he'd "never done anything like wrestle naked with another guy on the floor of an insurance brokers or mortgage brokers convention" and so felt he had to "up the ante" in his next movie.

"So we sailed into the mined water of Guantanamo Bay with sick 9/11 workers and a bullhorn," he said.

Moore headed to Guantanamo after seeing news reports that the inmates received good quality medical treatment, which he contrasted against the problems some Americans have in getting medical cover.

He sailed into the bay with ill emergency rescue workers who helped deal with the September 11th attacks and called to guards at the US prison for them to receive similar care.

But after not receiving a reply, Moore took the workers to Cuba where they received treatment from the Communist country's world-renowned medical service.

Explaining what was running through his mind when sailing into the heavily-guarded bay, Moore said: "What the hell am I doing? There's mines. This whole bay is mined, I think, by the Cubans and the Americans on each other's sides. There's guard towers, there's soldiers with guns. How crazy is this?"

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