A Serbian Film is a 2010 horror thriller directed by Srdan Spasojevic. The film follows the character of Milos a retired porn actor whom after having settled down with his wife and child is persuaded to resurrect his acting career for a high paying final film directed by the mysterious Vukmir. After keeping Milos in the dark about the content of the film Milos leaves the project when he discovers that Vukmir’s experimental art pornography includes child exploitation. However he is then drugged and coerced into completing the project. After waking in a confused state a few days later Milos seeks to discover what has happened to him and his family.
Whilst A Serbian Film will remain notorious for its more shocking moments the major takeaway from rewatching the film in 2021 is surprisingly how pedestrian and average the film is in terms of direction and narrative. Milos’ character arc follows a well worn trope of the reluctant antihero returning for one last high risk job and although the film takes time to establish character relationships these feel rather perfunctory rather than to develop affection for the characters. Once the film begins its final act it starts to pick up its tempo but for the most part the pacing is languid and slow. The film failed to develop any real engagement with its characters leaving its rather pompous ending feeling flat and inconsequential.
The film’s glossy crisp digital cinematography also feels rather incongruous to its seedy subject matter.
The visual style gives us the impression we are watching a slick action thriller rather than an extreme exploitation film and had the film been doused in the forgiving textures of grainy celluloid it may have played differently.
Another problem with the film is its inability to determine tone oscillating between serious and brooding for example when Vukmir reveals his filmmaking intentions to Milos and rather absurd cartoonish buffoonery illustrated mainly through the crazed director Vukmir who plays more like a Jamed Bond villain than a realistic antagonist. It is unclear if Spasojevic intended the film to play as a tongue in cheek satire or as a powerful thriller with political undertones or both. Spasojovic has stated that the film was intended as a critique of Serbian politics, culture and film. In an interview with Electric Sheep Magazine Spasojevic says:
first of all this film is an honest expression of the deepest feelings that we have about our region and the world in general. Concerning our region, the last few decades have been dominated by war and political and moral nightmares. The world in general is sugar-coated in political correctness, but it is actually very rotten under that facade. So we’re talking about problems in the modern world, only they’re set in Serbia. And it’s a struggle against all the corrupt authorities that govern our lives for their own purposes.
Whilst one cannot dispute that this was the intention these concepts are only apparent from the text itself in the most superficial way. Vukmir claims about his depraved art which captures the family destroying itself through generation on generation violence could be applied to many countries with histories of civil war. The text as a whole with its intentional shock value could be regarded as a retort to politically correct filmmaking but this also feels rather slight. There is nothing in the film which has anything deeper to say about Serbia specifically and it seems that the film would be more successful if it had spent more time developing its Serbian identity.
In my opinion he film’s most extreme scenes of violence and gore are probably more shocking on paper as opposed to how they actually play out on the screen. Saying this the film still has shock power in its more serious moments and will certainly be beyond the pale for the casual moviegoer.
G Sargenson
References
http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/2010/12/05/a-serbian-film-interview-with-srdjan-spasojevic/
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