A SERBIAN FILM... Lights... Camera... Dysfunction!

A Serbian Film (Sprski Film) (NC-17) 2010

Serbian with English subtitles

What the hell, Serbia?

I assume not every citizen of your country is a hooded sex freak doped up on horse amphetamines. But my god, how many are there?

Because I need to tell you, A Serbian Film makes it seem like a lot.

Every character is a porn star. Or a former porn star. Or a psychopath. Or a psychopathic porn star. Or the victim of a psychopathic former porn star.

And do you know the most horrific aspect of this movie, Serbia? How astonishingly beautiful it is! It's like watching a snuff film as imagined by Guillermo del Toro.

I know you're just a small sovereign nation in South America or Oregon or whatever, but I'm sure that even you know how many directors get lazy and resort to cinematic shorthand when filming horror. Images shake around as if filmed during an earthquake or are filtered so heavily as to become distracting and indecipherable. 

But your native son, director Srdjan Spasojevic, knows what is truly horrifying. He shows the most vile atrocities one human being can inflict upon another with complete clarity. There are no jump cuts or editing tricks. The camera simply lingers, revealing tortured bodies and tortured faces without judgment, without remorse. The effect is more disturbing than sharing a nightcap with Bill Cosby.

Of course this movie is difficult to endure. It is rife with every form of brutality known to man from rape to incest to murder. But like watching my toothless neighbor eat a hard boiled egg, it was so fascinating I couldn't turn away.

A Serbian Film is life askew, teetering just at the edge of self-parody. It shows a familiar world distorted through the funhouse mirrors of desperation and dread. Chilling, moving and disgusting, it is a must see for fans determined to experience the absolute best of the absolute worst.

And even though I'm sure the tourism board doesn't approve, you should still be very proud of this little independent movie. Because when it comes to finding "the most graphically explicit and psychologically disturbing films ever made," I can only say one thing.

We have a winner.

 

A Serbian Film Trailer