REVIEW: DVD Release: A Serbian Film

Film: A Serbian Film
Release date: 3rd January 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 95 mins
Director: Srdjan Spasojevic
Starring: Srdjan Todorovic, Jelena Gavrilovic, Katarina Zutic, Sergei Trifunovic, Slobodan Bestic
Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Revolver
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Serbia

With thanks to indiemoviesonline.com, which screens many foreign titles online for free.

Gore hounds delight! The release of Srdjan Spasojevic’s debut feature, A Serbian Film, has come amidst waves of controversy, and there’s nothing more guaranteed to make sure the film finds its target audience. The subject of numerous international court trials accusing it of violating laws against sexual morals (particularly the abuse of minors), A Serbian Film has seen hysterical British critics asking, “Is this the nastiest film ever made?”

Milos is a retired porn star, famous in his day for being able to achieve ‘performance ready’ status without external stimulus or physical assistance, now living out a quiet life with his wife and young son. The cash from his former career is dwindling, however, and when one of his former co-stars turns up with an offer for one last high-paying job, he agrees to meet with the enigmatic director in charge of the project.

The charismatic, mind-bending Vukmir introduces Milos to a world of boundary-pushing, extreme porn, broaching taboos such as infant rape, murder and necrophilia. With the offer of a huge pay check, Milos agrees to take part in Vukmir’s new project, on the condition that he knows nothing of what is to happen to him each day.

When Milos realises just how extreme the director’s vision extends, he hurriedly backs out of the project, but it isn’t long before he is pulled back in against his will. After waking up to realise he has lost three days of his life at the hands of Vukmir, Milos must piece together through found video tapes just what the obsessed director has had him do in the name of his art…


The familiar elements are all here: scuzzy warehouse set pieces, sexily trashy euro-models, and a hard-drinking, world-wearing lead who chain smokes and guzzles litres of whisky but somehow never seems to get drunk. Whether intentionally or otherwise, the script often mirrors the stilted dialogue of its subject, proudly proffering such gems as: “With great talent comes a great desire for self-f**kability.” Spasojevic does have some original ideas of his own, unfortunately most of which are too horrible to detail here. Particularly ingenious is a death scene where Milos uses his prodigious member as a lethal weapon speared through an empty eye-socket, bringing some ironic justice to a deserving bad guy.

Bjorn-from-Abba lookalike Srdjan Todorovic plays protagonist Milos with enthusiastic commitment, although his character is undermined by a somewhat unbelievable relationship with a beautiful family, who are quite content with his occasional dabbles back into porn-stardom, and his casual alcoholism. Sergej Trifunovic plays the charismatic director Vukmir with real zeal, but the character too often plays out as cartoony and over-the-top, undermining any real malice. There is, as well, implied in Vukmir through allusions to his past as a child psychologist, a depth of character which is never really explored. It is a problem which the film shares: a delusion of being more than it really is. With statements about the film’s parallels to Serbia’s own troubled history, one gets the feeling that Spasojevic, like his fictional auteur, has in mind some grand plan which remains a mystery to the rest of us.

Anyone who can’t see where the set-up is heading a mile off is giving the film more credit than it deserves, but when the payoff comes, it is still pretty horrific. Spasojevic is a man with a very definite agenda: to push the boundaries and to screen horrors which have never been seen before. Shock fans viewing the BBFC approved UK release of A Serbian Film may be left wondering what all the fuss is about, as they have insisted on a full 4 minutes worth of cuts for the film to be granted an 18 certificate. In cases such as the infamous ‘newborn rape’ scene, the gory details have been removed entirely, leaving the atrocities to be merely hinted at. It is revealing that in a film where the shock is everything, where the most appalling details have been censored, the film is left feeling somewhat of a lacklustre effort. Compare this with classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, where the censorship board found that removing sections of the film had no effect on their power over an audience. At the very end of A Serbian Film, Spasojevic throws in one last horrible gut punch just before the credits role. Here is a man trying right until the very last second to sicken and disgust, but after 110 minutes of appalling degradation, it just comes across as trying too hard.


While credit should always be given to directors for pushing boundaries, A Serbian Film is little more than an excuse for Spasojevic to put on screen the worst horrors of his mind with little thought to such bothersome details as character development or a believable narrative. Fans of this kind of extreme cinema will not be deterred, and will doubtless find some source of gratification here, but there is little to recommend A Serbian Film as a serious entry into the annals of horror history. LOZ