First of all, I am deeply sorry for introducing you this film, or rather, talking about it. By which after reading what I have to say despite me telling you not to, you might want to still watch this movie because you’re interested (and daring enough) to watch it.
That said, let’s move on.
Synopsis:
A Serbian Film is a 2010 Serbian horror film and the first feature film directed by Srđan Spasojević. It tells the story of a down-on-his-luck porn star who agrees to participate in an “art film”, only to discover that he has been drafted into a snuff film* with child rape and necrophilic themes. [Source from Wikipedia]
* A motion picture genre that depicts the actual rape or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation.
A friend of mine gave me this movie without both of us knowing what it was. A friend of his did say that it was some movie involving paedophilic acts but there was no talk about the graphicness of this movie. I went to Wikipedia to read up about the synopsis and what not, but I don’t remember being particularly disgusted by it. Perhaps, I didn’t think much about it until I actually watched the movie months later.
The first part of the film was raunchy and exciting; showing footages of porn videos made by the main actor as he was, a has-been porn star. I watched the uncut and uncensored version of this film, so there were a lot of nakedness in it. What can I say, the guy was good with his craft, despite in reality, the actor is not an actual porn star, he merely acts as one in this film.
When you reach the middle of the movie, you tend to wonder what type of film he was paid to do. Both audience (you and I) and the main character do not know what he was in for until he reached the movie set. Even then, you were not sure what you’re watching and unsure of the fate of the character.
During the climax, you start to see a lot of gory shit happening in the movie. You want to vomit, you close your eyes, you gasp in surprise and you mute the sound which in turn, mute the screams of the main character and other characters in the movie. You hope things that you know would happen, would not happen, just to save yourselves from the never ending trauma.
Towards the end of Milos’ (the main character) journey to recall back what he did the night before, you start to slowly understand the whole film and when you reach the end of it, you feel all sorts of emotions; guilt, sadness, shock, disgust, disturbed… These emotions run through your body as you sit there, staring at the credits, trying to process what you just watched. If you watch it at night, just before bed time, well, good luck sleeping when scenes of the film keep on flashing in your head.
If you have not watched any horror, gory films before, this film might just shock you to your bones. From the reviews that I read, this movie was certainly a big shock, even to those who watch these kinds of film all the time! Well, most of them anyway. I did find one or two who seemed bored and indifferent with this film. They must watch a lot of this shit eh?
Simply said, this movie is graphic (murder and sex scenes – not the sexy kind, but the fucking while killing kind) and it seems incredibly real. It seems so real that I read in this article that the movie directors and producers had to prove to the police that they did not actually killed people to make their movie. Also, it is banned in some countries due to its extremely graphic and explicit contents of the film.
A friend asked me if it was even nearly as disturbing as Human Centipede. I have not watch that film before, nor do I want to, but I did though research on reviews talking about A Serbian Film vs. Human Centipede. From my research, most (almost all) reviews said that A Serbian Film tops the most disturbing film of all. Maybe I should watch it (Human Centipede) to fully examine the two, but after watching this film, I don’t think gory film is my thing. I prefer horror films; the ghost kind.
What separates both movies is perhaps, according to one article, the fact that A Serbian Film’s villain, the art-crazy director, Vukmir Vukmir, is someone that does exist in our world today without us knowing it, while the crazy doctor in Human Centipede is a character that would and could exist, but might not (I hope so!). Which makes sense, in a way.
A Serbian Film is suppose to shock the audience by throwing all the taboo topics in it and mixing it all together to form the movie. When you have something like “newborn porn” (fucking a newborn baby until it dies), paedophilia, incest, sodomy and murder thrown in one graphic movie, obviously you’ll be disturbed by it. And I’m sorry for constantly talking about how graphic the movie is because really, it pretty much made the movie as it is; crazy and intense!
Also, these taboo topics do exist in real life, which makes this movie seems so real and scary!
A lot of people said it was rubbish, that it didn’t bear any meaning aside from the shock effect. Perhaps. But I did take in some things from it though; desperation of one to continue living, the intensity of how one would go for the sake of art, not caring of one’s life.. etc.
According to the Guardian UK, The Serbian Film’s director, Srdjan Spasojevic, insists that: “This is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government. It’s about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotise you to do things you don’t want to do.”
Director’s Statement:
The initial idea was to make a film which would incorporate our desire to make an honest and unflinching depiction of the political and emotional turmoil that governed our lives in Serbia during the last two decades of wars and transition, but also to merge that ambition with the wish to make a philosophical, confrontational genre film which would transcend those agendas into a piece of cinema that we had always wanted to make. We didn’t want to make a hermetic picture that would deal exclusively with our local tragedies, but to tell a story with global overtones, because Serbia is merely a reflection of the ways of today’s New World in general, as it tries to imitate it and fails miserably. Contrary to the peerless politically correct facade of the New World, it’s still a soulless devouring machine for killing every small freedom – of art and free speech – we have left, destroying everything different in its path.
[Source]
And I just read that the infant rape scene in the movie was supposed to be a metaphor of how we’re fucked by our governments as soon as we’re born. I wish they were subtle when showing this metaphor, but nope!
Some reviews that I read:
“Frankly, it is the most graphic, disturbing thing I have ever watched. Its banned in places and has been a nightmare to get distributed for the directors etc. It is so extreme and graphic, it really has made me question if shit like that should be allowed.”
“That film is just pure shock value. It’s a disgusting movie that I wish I didn’t watch.”
“The film didn’t disturb me, but then again I’m a ‘youngster’ we’re all for violence right? Anyway, the film is much more depressing then it is disturbing.”
[Source]
“For all its hysteria and nasty shock tactics, A Serbian Film does have something to say about representations of sexuality, cinematic violence and audience culpability.”
“Spasojevic successfully grabs the audience’s attention, and then he just abuses the privilege rather than doing anything worthwhile with it.”
“I admire and detest it at the same time. And I will never watch it again. Ever.”
“It’s deliberately controversial and extremely grisly, but it also has a strong message that encompasses both politics and the sex industry. But it’s not for the weak-stomached.”
[Source: Rotten Tomatoes]
The villain slash crazy-arty director, Vukmir Vukmir.
I also managed to dig out reviews from these two blogs which I thought captured what I felt about the movie best, especially this particular review. For those of you who do not want to watch the movie but feel extremely compelled to be a part of it somehow, then you should definitely read about the movie here (spoilers alert).
So there, my two cents on the movie. I don’t really recommend anybody to watch the movie, but if you’re interested to watch then, then go ahead :) I would love to know what you think about it though.
I personally wouldn’t watch it again.
