A Serbian Film

''A Serbian Film'' ( sr, Српски филм, translit=Srpski film) is a 2010 Serbian horror- thriller film produced and directed by Srđan Spasojević in his feature film debut. Spasojević also co-wrote the film with Aleksandar Radivojević. It tells the experience of a financially struggling pornstar who agrees to participate in an "art film", only to discover that he has been drafted into a snuff film with pedophilic and necrophilic themes. The film stars Serbian actors Srđan Todorović, Sergej Trifunović, and Jelena Gavrilović.

Upon its debut on the art film circuit, ''A Serbian Film'' received substantial attention and controversy for its graphic violence and sexual content. The film has been banned in several countries including the Philippines, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Norway, and was temporarily banned from screening in Brazil. It is widely regarded by many as the most disturbing movie of all time.

Plot

Miloš is a semi-retired pornstar who lives in Belgrade with his wife, Marija, and their six-year-old son, Petar. His brother Marko is a corrupt police officer who envies Miloš's life and is sexually attracted to Marija. Marija is curious about her husband's feelings towards his past and is concerned about the family's income. Lejla, a former co-star, offers Miloš a starring role in an art film directed by Vukmir, an independent pornographer who wishes to cast Miloš for his powerful erection. Having already caught Petar watching one of his films and not informed of the details of Vukmir's film, Miloš is hesitant to participate and continue his career but accepts to secure his family's financial future. While meeting Vukmir, Miloš passes a bald man and his entourage, regarding them warily.

The filming begins at an orphanage, where Vukmir feeds Miloš instructions through an earpiece given by Vukmir's one-eyed driver Raša, while a film crew follows him. Miloš sees a young girl named Jeca, who is being scolded by her mother for disgracing her deceased war hero husband's memory by becoming a prostitute. In a dark room, screens show Jeca eating an ice pop while Miloš is given fellatio by a nurse. Then, Miloš is instructed to receive it from the mother, while Jeca watches. Miloš refuses but is forced to continue. Marko later informs him that Vukmir is a former psychologist who has worked in children's television and state security. Vukmir meets a hesitant Miloš afterward to explain his artistic style, showing a film of a woman giving birth to a newborn which is immediately raped by Raša, in what the director terms "newborn porn." Miloš storms out and drives away. At a road junction, he is approached and seduced by Vukmir's female doctor.

A bloodied Miloš wakes up in his bed sometime later with no memory of what has happened. He returns to the now abandoned set and finds several tapes. Viewing them, Miloš discovers that he was drugged to induce an aggressive, sexually aroused, and suggestible state. At Vukmir's manipulative direction, Miloš beats and rapes Jeca's mother before decapitating her, and later, a catatonic Miloš is sodomized by Vukmir's security. He then watches footage of Lejla voicing concern for Miloš, only to be restrained as her teeth are removed. A masked man then enters the room and forces his penis down her throat to kill her by suffocation. The footage continues as Miloš is led to Jeca's home where an elderly woman praises him for killing her mother and offers Jeca as a "virgin commune." Miloš refuses and escapes through a window to an alleyway, where he watches a girl pass by. He begins masturbating and is attacked by a group of thugs before they are killed by Raša, who then takes Miloš back to a warehouse with Vukmir.

At the warehouse, Vukmir's doctor administers more drugs after which Miloš overpowers her, sticking the syringe into her throat. He is then taken into a room to have intercourse with two hidden bodies under a sheet. Miloš is guided onto one body and the masked man from Lejla's movie enters and begins sexually assaulting the other. Miloš doesn't notice that his victim is bleeding profusely from the rectum. Vukmir then reveals the masked man to be Marko, his brother. Marko's victim is revealed to be Marija, while Miloš's is revealed to be Petar, his son. Vukmir's doctor then staggers into the warehouse, clothes disheveled with her vaginal area covered in blood. She is holding a bloodied metal pipe in her hand, implying that she masturbated herself to death after being shot up with the same drug she used on Miloš to make him sexually aroused and aggressive. She falls and dies from massive vaginal hemorrhaging. With everyone's attention diverted, an enraged Miloš lunges at Vukmir and smashes his head against the floor, initiating a brawl during which Marija bites Marko in the jugular before bludgeoning him to death with a sculpture. Miloš wrestles a gun from a guard and shoots all but Raša, whom he kills by shoving his erect penis into his empty eye socket. A dying Vukmir praises Miloš's actions as truly worthy of a film.

Miloš, having recalled his actions, including locking his wife and son in their basement before passing out earlier, returns home to find them. He and his wife come to a mutual understanding that he, his wife, and their son should die together, so the three gather in bed and embrace before Miloš fires a fatal shot through himself, Petar, and Marija. Sometime later a new film crew, including the bald man from earlier, enters the bedroom. He unzips his fly, as the director advises him to " start with the little one."

Cast

* Srđan Todorović as Miloš
* Sergej Trifunović as Vukmir
* Jelena Gavrilović as Marija
* Slobodan Beštić as Marko
* Katarina Žutić as Lejla
* Anđela Nenadović as Jeca
* Ana Sakić as Jeca's mother
* Lidija Pletl as Jeca's granny
* Lena Bogdanović as a doctor
* Luka Mijatović as Petar
* Nenad Heraković as Keeper #1
* Carni Đerić as Keeper #2
* Marko Crljen as Keeper #3
* Miodrag Krčmarik as Raša
* Tanja Divnić as Kindergarten teacher
* Natasa Miljus as Pregnant Woman

Themes

Speaking more than a decade after the film's release, its writer Radivojević discussed the specifics of the material for what would eventually become ''A Serbian Film'' being gathered over a period of ten years, starting in the late 1990s from a film school screenplay idea of his that the Belgrade University of Arts' Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) dramaturgy student initially developed only as far as a synopsis titled ''Orgazmatron''. Radivojević further revealed that, when it comes to the general framing of the original screenplay idea, he drew inspiration from the porn star and filmmaker Rocco Siffredi’s 1990s cinematic exploits: “Siffredi had been cranking out VHS tapes depicting himself engaged in brutal sexual acts on location with local girls in different parts of Europe (mostly in marginalized and poor post-communist Eastern European countries), all of which had an uncomfortable undertone of colonialism. One particular scene that stayed in my mind has him having sex with a girl in a car while in the background you see this forest out of which a group of grizzled beggars suddenly starts to emerge, at which point Siffredi who by now is done with the girl, 'returns her' to the downtrodden locals, handing her over to them in the manner of a modern-day Marquis de Sade as if to say: ‘here you go, I’ve finished what I needed do, she's all yours now’. So, by making the main character in that original synopsis an aging male porn star, I began to incorporate this notion of modern-day colonialism via sexual exploitation of a poor country's human resource".

After graduating, Radivojević became friends with fellow budding filmmaker Srđan Spasojević, a film direction graduate from 's Academy of Arts. Bonding over their similar cinematic tastes—mutual appreciation of Paul Schrader's screenwriting opus as well as Brian de Palma's '' Dressed to Kill'', Alfred Hitchcock's '' Spellbound'', and David Lynch—the two young men began collaborating professionally. However, unable to get multiple cinematic projects off the ground in Serbia throughout early-to-mid-2000s, the duo grew frustrated with country's film industry—financially completely reliant on the European Union (EU) arts council grants as well local Ministry of Culture and public service television funding. In 2022, Radivojević discussed his and Spasojević's professional struggles via looking back on Serbia's 2000s cinematic output: "It was utterly hopeless. On the one hand, you had Zdravko Šotra's folksy comedies or costumed dramas/sitcoms sucking up oxygen to the near exclusion of everything else. Meanwhile, on the other hand, and this was most depressing of all, you had this EU arts council funded production using Serbia for EU's political agitprop agenda of 'promoting tolerance and reconciliation in the post-war Balkans' by boosting sappy local projects of no aesthetic value whose sole reason for receiving EU financing was their respective authors' willingness to amplify the EU-approved message, i.e. to express 'Serb contrition over what happened in the Yugoslav Wars' via essentially making victim porn, showing small miserable Serb people who are struggling mightily while nevertheless simultaneously 'doing their part in search of collective redemption' by being extremely remorseful. Breaking through that barrier and getting conventional financing in Serbia for the kind of movies we wanted to make was simply impossible".

In March 2009, six months after the shooting wrapped, film's director Spasojević and writer Radivojević stated that the at-that-point-still-unreleased film is a parody of modern Serbian-made politically correct films that are financed by foreign arts council funds such as Eurimages. Commenting the decision to connect the movie to the country via the title, Radivojević replied: "We have become synonymous with chaos and lunacy. The title is a cynical reference to that image. ''A Serbian Film'' is also a metaphor for our erbiannational cinema—boring, predictable and altogether unintentionally hilarious which to a certain extent is commented on and subtly parodied throughout our film." Similarly, Radivojević dismissed Serbian cinema as "pathetic state-financed films made by people who have no sense or connection to film, but are strongly supported by foreign arts council funds", while adding: "the quality of their films is of no concern to them, only the bureaucratic upholding of the rule book on political correctness."

In a May 2010 interview, while the film was doing rounds on the festival circuit, Spasojević is quoted as saying the film "denounces the fascism of political correctness". Questioned by the Croatian media on whether the violence depicted deals with crimes committed by Serbian soldiers during the Yugoslav Wars, Spasojević answered: "''A Serbian Film'' does not touch upon war themes, but in a metaphorical way deals with the consequences of post-war society and a man that is exploited to the extreme in the name of securing the survival of his family."

While promoting the film's December 2010 UK theatrical release, Spasojević stated that the character of Vukmir is "an exaggerated representation of the new European film order", adding: "In Eastern Europe, you cannot get your film financed unless you have a barefoot girl who cries on the streets, or some story about war victims in our Balkan.html"_;"title="Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkan">Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkanregion_..._the_ Balkan.html"_;"title="Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkan">Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkanregion_..._the_Western_world">Balkans">Balkan.html"_;"title="Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkan">Balkans.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Balkans">Balkanregion_..._the_Western_world_has_lost_feelings,_so_they're_searching_for_false_ones,_they_want_to_buy_feelings."

_Release

_Film_festival_circuit

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Release

Film festival circuit

The first ever showing of ''A Serbian Film'' took place on 15 March 2010 at midnight in Austin, Texas">Austin as part of the 2010 South by Southwest. During the introduction by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's owner Tim League, the audience in the theater was once again warned about the extreme nature of the scenes they were about to see and given one last chance to leave the screening. He also coaxed a handful of audience members to join him on the stage – where they jointly snorted lines of salt, squeezed lime juice into their eyes and took shots of tequila in order to "understand what Serbians have been through to create a culture of ''A Serbian Film''". The next day, a brief report from the screening appeared in the blog section of the ''Wall Street Journal'' web site thus giving the movie its first piece of U.S. corporate media press, with the WSJ reporter expressing shock not so much at the film's content but at the fact "it looks like a relatively expensive production, moves along at a competent pace and includes solid performances, indicating the filmmakers’ serious intentions lurking beneath the surface".

Next was a screening at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in April 2010 where the movie also received a lot of attention over its shocking content.

On 11 June 2010, the film had its premiere screening in Serbia as part of the Cinema City festival in Novi Sad. Due to high demand resulting from the press buzz that the movie had been generating throughout preceding months, the festival organizers decided to schedule additional screenings.

The film was run on 16–19 July 2010 during the Fantasia Festival in Montreal as part of the Subversive Serbia program.

The film was due to screen on 29 August 2010 at the Film Four FrightFest in London, UK but was pulled by the organizers following the intervention of Westminster Council. Films shown at this festival are usually shown pre-certificate but in this case Westminster Council refused to grant permission for its exhibition until it had been classified by the BBFC. Following its DVD submission to the BBFC (there were no theatrical materials available in the time frame requested for a proper theatrical classification), 49 cuts totaling four minutes and eleven seconds were requested for DVD certification. The UK distributor, Revolver Entertainment, initially looked into the possibilities of the process, but it became clear that the film would then have to be resubmitted to the BBFC and further cuts may then have been required. It was decided that to show a heavily edited version was not in the spirit of the festival and consequently its exhibition was pulled from the schedule. The film was replaced at the festival by Rodrigo Cortés' '' Buried'' starring Ryan Reynolds.

The Raindance Film Festival, that picked up the film at the Cannes Film Festival in May, subsequently held the UK premiere and "found a way around the ban by billing the screening as a 'private event. Westminster Council requested to monitor the invitations to the screening. The 35mm print was shipped from the BBFC for 8 October 2010 premiere.

On 21 October 2010, the film had a single screening at Toronto's Bloor Cinema. It took place as part of the monthly event called Cinemacabre Movie Nights organized by the '' Rue Morgue'' magazine. The publication also spotlighted the film and featured it on its cover.

On 26 November 2010, the film was refused classification by the Australian Classification Board, banning sales and public showings of the film in Australia. However, on 5 April 2011, the Australian Classification Board approved a censored version of the film.

During March 2011, ''A Serbian Film'' won the Special Jury Prize in the 31st edition of Fantasporto, Portugal's biggest film festival, in Porto.

On 12 and 16 July 2011, the film was screened at FANTASPOA in Porto Alegre, Brazil and at least at one other film festival in the country, before being banned just before a screening in Rio de Janeiro. Initially the ban applied only in Rio, but afterwards the decision became valid throughout the country, pending further judgement of the film.

In 2020, Unearthed Films started to distribute the film uncut and uncensored in the United States in Blu-ray and DVD.

General theatrical release

On 24 September 2010, ''A Serbian Film'' was released uncensored (104 minutes) in Serbian theaters, with screening times scheduled late at night.

From 3 December 2010, ''A Serbian Film'' began a limited theatrical release in Croatia without age restriction. '' Jutarnji list'' reported that the first screening at the Kaptol Centar cinema in Zagreb attracted only seven people, six males and a female—with the female reportedly leaving the theater temporarily during the film's most notorious scene due to finding the specific onscreen proceedings unbearable to watch.

The film had a limited release in UK cinemas on 10 December 2010 in the edited form (99 minutes), with four minutes and eleven seconds of its original content removed by the British Board of Film Classification due to "elements of sexual violence that tend to eroticize or endorse sexual violence". ''A Serbian Film'' thus became the most censored cinema release in Britain since the 1994 Indian film ''Nammavar'' that had five minutes and eight seconds of its violent content removed.

The film had a limited release in the United States on 6 May 2011, edited to 98 minutes with an NC-17 rating. It was released on VOD at the website FlixFling on the same day, except only slightly edited to 103 minutes.

Home media

Through Invincible Pictures, a limited edition uncut version was released via DVD on 22 May 2012. Tom Ashley, CEO of the distribution company, had this to say, "Of course we would have preferred an uncut release last year. Unfortunately, the charges brought against Mr. Sala irector_of_the_irector_of_the_Sitges_Film_Festival">Sitges_Film_Festival.html"_;"title="irector_of_the_Sitges_Film_Festival">irector_of_the_Sitges_Film_Festivalwere_something_we_had_to_seriously_factor_into_that_release._Now_that_those_charges_have_been_dropped,_we_can_bring_''A_Serbian_Film''_to_its_fans_as_its_director_had_intended."

Unearthed_Films_

Unearthed_Films_is_a_U.S._film_distribution_and_production_company_that_imports_exploitation_films_primarily_from_Eastern_Asia.
_History
The_company_was_created_by_Stephen_Biro,_Paul_White_and_Rhett_Rushing._Their_initial_releases_were_the_first_o_...
_released_a_104_minute_uncut_and_uncensored_version_of_the_film_on_Blu-ray.html" "title="Sitges_Film_Festival.html" ;"title="Sitges_Film_Festival.html" ;"title="irector of the Sitges Film Festival">irector of the Sitges Film Festival">Sitges_Film_Festival.html" ;"title="irector of the Sitges Film Festival">irector of the Sitges Film Festivalwere something we had to seriously factor into that release. Now that those charges have been dropped, we can bring ''A Serbian Film'' to its fans as its director had intended."

Unearthed Films released a 104 minute uncut and uncensored version of the film on Blu-ray">Blu-Ray