A Serbian Film (2010)

A Serbian Film felt like Srdjan Spasojevic pulled up an Excel sheet one day, and sat around with a bunch of perverts to come up with all of the most deviant sexual taboos that they could fit into a movie and then drafted a story over it. I was not appalled, I was only slightly disgusted and I was never shocked, I was watching and waiting for the movie to truly begin. What I got from A Serbian Film was some semi-graphic kiddie porn lumped in with a dose of bestiality, incest and gore. IF this is an artistic movie then I am the Emperor of the Universe.

For those of you who are used to movies where your eyes are spared of the graphical, sexual instances – this movie will accomplish what it set out to do. It will shock and disturb you very much like 8mm, The Human Centipede and Hostel would have had they shown everything in graphic detail.

A Graphic Synopsis of What I Saw (Spoilers Included):

Watching A Serbian Film made me feel as if I was being hazed, or trolled by a vile human being. There was rape all over this movie, rape of a 8 yr old boy, a newborn (not joking), numerous women, a grown man… by another man and incest. One woman has her teeth violently removed and is forced to give fellatio with her bloody, toothless gape. A woman is raped on the cold hard floor of a dimly lit basement as an 11 yr old girl looks on. A father impales his son on his overly erect, drug induced… okay I’ll stop.

I consider myself desensitized heavily; having seen some of the most disgusting things that a human being can witness so A Serbian Film did not scar me like it aimed to do. I watched it and accepted the wicked premise, hoping that beneath it all would be a quality movie. Outside of the obvious trolling, the story wasn’t good and the direction was a tad confusing. The intent is of course to mock the “artistic” films of the past that border on the absurd and emotional genius, it doesn’t accomplish either.

Synopsis:

A Serbian Film stars Milos (Srdjan Todorovic), an ex porn superstar with a talent for satisfying multiple women on film. His retirement finds him hurting for money and he worries about supporting his beautiful wife Marija (Jelena Gavrilovic) and their son Petar. One day Milos’s brother and one of his old work partners approaches him with an opportunity to be in a movie that would pay him enough to be set for life. The proposal seems too good to be true but with money running out Milos agrees to meet a man named Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic) to join in on the secret project. Vukmir makes Milos sign a contract (which he doesn’t read) and before long he finds himself having sex with a woman in the shady basement of an abandoned children’s orphanage.

Every day Milos is brought in to have regular sex but the bizarre extras start to worry him. Once a little girl is made to watch him, another time he is forced to slap up and abuse a woman. This latter abuse is the final straw for him and when he tries to back out, Vukmir pulls him into a private meeting, explains his full intent of giving people “reality” (along with some insane gibberish about his money keeping Serbia alive) and makes him watch an appalling sex scene involving a newborn.

When Milos makes to escape the dirty orphanage and Vukmir’s insanity, he is caught, drugged with animal aphrodisiacs (think Viagra on overload) and made to do unspeakable acts. Milos awakes in his bed after the 3 day ordeal to bloody sheets, soreness everywhere and absolutely no memory. When he returns to the orphanage the place is a charnel house of blood, bodies and human remains. Luckily for him he finds the tapes that were made during the days and as he watches them he is shown the damage that he wrought including the murder of Vukmir and his thugs and the rape and torture of his beloved wife and child.

I am not proud of this review and really wished I had not seen this movie. Not because I stand on any moral high ground or for it having disturbed me in any type of way. I am just disappointed that such offensive material was not coupled with a story that could improve awareness on the dark side of porn – in a similar way that 8mm did. This was more a comedy for those of us with a sick sense of humor and admiration for cheesy, gore films.

Stay away from A Serbian Film and heed my warning at its absurdity. It isn’t art and it isn’t a message that needs to be heard. It’s softcore porn for gore hounds and if you aren’t in that family then you would do best to forget about it. At the same time it is brilliantly shot, directed and holds some very solid acting, the review explains my personal feelings but this doesn’t make in any less a well put together film.