Movies are like bodybuilders: they're always trying to compete and outdo each other, have the biggest muscles and get the most attention. Even at that, you will always get one 'pee-wee', a former weakling who is so insecure and lacking any shred of common sense, he will walk through the door with muscles expanded to bursting point by steroids that almost say: "Look at me, everybody!! Just look at me!!" If this analogy can be applied here, then that makes 'A Serbian Film' the same peewee at the gym: it's the former hundred pound weakling on steroids who vying hysterically for yours and everybody else's attention.
Milos, a famously well-endowed porno star (Srdjan Todorovic) wants to quit the porn business and settle down. But as of late, he has become disillusioned with the difficulties of life with his wife and child, and is financially in very bad shape. After a conversation with one of his former co-stars, however, he gets an offer he can't refuse: to star in a new movie and get paid tons of money for it. Unfortunately for him, said movie turns out to be a violent, sex filled snuff film and the aging porn star soon find himself in over his head in death, gore and filth.
If you want to know exactly what the "gore and filth" is, here's a taster: a woman is beheaded by a man having sex with her only he continues to have sex with her corpse; another woman is smothered by a penis shoved down her mouth - while her nostrils are clenched shut; a man is sodomized while unconscious etc. Even if that's acceptable to you, then it commits the cardinal sin: the abuse of children. A newborn baby is plucked graphically from the vagina of a pregnant woman by a repulsive man who then goes and fornicates it. Yes, even though it may be a prosthetic baby, the filmmakers clearly went to a lot of trouble by getting the best possible sound of a crying baby to symbolize pain as it's being violated. As if that's not bad enough, this movie ventures into pedophilia for a second time: a child is sodomized by his unknowing father. We see a glimpse of blood flowing And on it goes
As movies go, it's competent on a technical level and is well acted, but it's just so damned tasteless. At the time of release, the director Srdjan Spasojevic alleged that among all the sleaze that's going on, there is actually a 'meaning' to this film, saying it was about Serbia and what's being done to its people, and also the totalitarian censorship. While this is all fine and dandy in theory for those who may have read those interviews, the message won't be quite as apparent to someone viewing it cold and with no prior knowledge. Clearly, the cast is game and in on the 'joke' – the director must have done a really great job in articulating his lofty intentions because you wonder how else he was able to pull something like this off? The fact is whatever the ambitions of the director, everybody else in the world would clearly need to have a PHD in mind reading to arrive at such a context, and the cast are left with egg on their face because they fell for it hook, line and sinker.
In the end, whatever alleged message this movie or its director is trying to convey is lost amongst all the sodomy, rape and pedophilia on display. Again we come back on to the whole argument that a movie should be based on the story and what you can actually see; not on underlying meanings and what you can't. A movie shouldn't have to be deciphered, which is the primary reason why this doesn't work. If the director wanted to make a movie about Serbia, why didn't he do that then? Why hide his message amongst the pedophilia – not once, but twice? The point is, being a metaphor for something does not give you a license to put whatever you want up on a screen. There are boundaries. There has to be. The line has to be drawn somewhere.
Let's be honest: the main reason this movie even exists is not to pass a social commentary on the state of Serbia, it exists only because of the determination of the director Srdjan Spasojevic to get his name on the map and hopefully the attention of Hollywood and a production deal. If this is actually the case, he might be hard pressed to find anyone who would work with him based on this steaming turd. Even taken as a movie, A Serbian Film is one heck of a slow, dull and boring film. It'll be lights out within twenty minutes if watched while tired. But at least you'll miss all the twisted visuals that are on display.
Made by pornographers not filmmakers, A Serbian Film is a repulsive little movie full of repulsive characters. That it fails in conveying the alleged message it's attempting to deliver, clearly indicates its sole reason for being here. Devotees who think this is a good film/misunderstood masterpiece are at best fooling themselves and are at worse defending a film that revels in the rape/violation of the very young just for the sake of it. One comes away from the film wondering about the mindset of any parent who would authorize their child to be in such a movie. To show the rape of a child even once is bad; but to do it twice? Where is the context and the social commentary in that?
In conclusion, 'A Serbian Film' is the little peewee at the gym; the hundred pound weakling who's so insecure he's resorted to steroids to get attention; that sad, lonely little figure, flexing muscles that scream, "LOOK AT ME, EVERYBODY! JUST LOOK AT ME!"
Milos, a famously well-endowed porno star (Srdjan Todorovic) wants to quit the porn business and settle down. But as of late, he has become disillusioned with the difficulties of life with his wife and child, and is financially in very bad shape. After a conversation with one of his former co-stars, however, he gets an offer he can't refuse: to star in a new movie and get paid tons of money for it. Unfortunately for him, said movie turns out to be a violent, sex filled snuff film and the aging porn star soon find himself in over his head in death, gore and filth.
If you want to know exactly what the "gore and filth" is, here's a taster: a woman is beheaded by a man having sex with her only he continues to have sex with her corpse; another woman is smothered by a penis shoved down her mouth - while her nostrils are clenched shut; a man is sodomized while unconscious etc. Even if that's acceptable to you, then it commits the cardinal sin: the abuse of children. A newborn baby is plucked graphically from the vagina of a pregnant woman by a repulsive man who then goes and fornicates it. Yes, even though it may be a prosthetic baby, the filmmakers clearly went to a lot of trouble by getting the best possible sound of a crying baby to symbolize pain as it's being violated. As if that's not bad enough, this movie ventures into pedophilia for a second time: a child is sodomized by his unknowing father. We see a glimpse of blood flowing And on it goes
As movies go, it's competent on a technical level and is well acted, but it's just so damned tasteless. At the time of release, the director Srdjan Spasojevic alleged that among all the sleaze that's going on, there is actually a 'meaning' to this film, saying it was about Serbia and what's being done to its people, and also the totalitarian censorship. While this is all fine and dandy in theory for those who may have read those interviews, the message won't be quite as apparent to someone viewing it cold and with no prior knowledge. Clearly, the cast is game and in on the 'joke' – the director must have done a really great job in articulating his lofty intentions because you wonder how else he was able to pull something like this off? The fact is whatever the ambitions of the director, everybody else in the world would clearly need to have a PHD in mind reading to arrive at such a context, and the cast are left with egg on their face because they fell for it hook, line and sinker.
In the end, whatever alleged message this movie or its director is trying to convey is lost amongst all the sodomy, rape and pedophilia on display. Again we come back on to the whole argument that a movie should be based on the story and what you can actually see; not on underlying meanings and what you can't. A movie shouldn't have to be deciphered, which is the primary reason why this doesn't work. If the director wanted to make a movie about Serbia, why didn't he do that then? Why hide his message amongst the pedophilia – not once, but twice? The point is, being a metaphor for something does not give you a license to put whatever you want up on a screen. There are boundaries. There has to be. The line has to be drawn somewhere.
Let's be honest: the main reason this movie even exists is not to pass a social commentary on the state of Serbia, it exists only because of the determination of the director Srdjan Spasojevic to get his name on the map and hopefully the attention of Hollywood and a production deal. If this is actually the case, he might be hard pressed to find anyone who would work with him based on this steaming turd. Even taken as a movie, A Serbian Film is one heck of a slow, dull and boring film. It'll be lights out within twenty minutes if watched while tired. But at least you'll miss all the twisted visuals that are on display.
Made by pornographers not filmmakers, A Serbian Film is a repulsive little movie full of repulsive characters. That it fails in conveying the alleged message it's attempting to deliver, clearly indicates its sole reason for being here. Devotees who think this is a good film/misunderstood masterpiece are at best fooling themselves and are at worse defending a film that revels in the rape/violation of the very young just for the sake of it. One comes away from the film wondering about the mindset of any parent who would authorize their child to be in such a movie. To show the rape of a child even once is bad; but to do it twice? Where is the context and the social commentary in that?
In conclusion, 'A Serbian Film' is the little peewee at the gym; the hundred pound weakling who's so insecure he's resorted to steroids to get attention; that sad, lonely little figure, flexing muscles that scream, "LOOK AT ME, EVERYBODY! JUST LOOK AT ME!"