‘A Serbian Film’: The disturbing horror movie created in fury against the government
More than any other genre, horror possesses the potential to push the boundaries of cinematic acceptability to its limits. Some movies still manage to cross a line beyond that, though, and A Serbian Film is unquestionably one of them.
Co-written and directed by Srđan Spasojević, the project had already gained a reputation long before it had even been screened for the public, based entirely on the details. Spoken of in hushed tones across the internet, the tale of an ageing porn star agreeing to take part in what he’s led to believe is an ‘art film’ generated controversy long before anyone had seen so much as a single frame.
Beyond its harrowing subject matter and stomach-churning depictions of violence and unspeakable acts, Spasojević and fellow scribe Aleksandar Radivojević were adamant that their feature – regularly named among the most disturbing ever committed to celluloid – began life as a parody designed as a withering assessment of their view of the Serbian film industry.
Before A Serbian Film had even released, Radivojević laid out his mission statement in an interview with TPortal: “The title is a cynical reference to that image. A Serbian Film is also a metaphor for our national cinema,” he said. “Boring, predictable and altogether unintentionally hilarious which to a certain extent is commented on and subtly parodied throughout our film.”
Denigrating his entire nation’s output as “pathetic state-financed films made by people who have no sense or connection to film,” he added that “the quality of their films is of no concern to them, only the bureaucratic upholding of the rule book on political correctness.” In their eyes, Radivojević and Spasojević were deconstructing the reliance of Serbian cinema on playing it safe to secure funding grants, with their act of rebellion manifesting as the most graphic interpretation of the medium they could think of.
Acknowledging that “getting conventional financing in Serbia for the kind of movies we wanted to make was simply impossible,” Radivojević lambasted the “utterly hopeless” state of the artform under governmental oversight, with Spasojević explaining that their unflinchingly brutal movie “denounces the fascism of political correctness.”
Speaking to Electric Sheep Magazine, the director continued crusading against the limitations and restrictions imposed by the powers-that-be, describing Sergej Trifunović’s erstwhile antagonist Vukmir – the independently wealthy pornographer who unwittingly lures Srđan Todorović’s Miloš into a snuff film with objectionable elements – as “an exaggerated representation of the new European film order”.
Taking aim at what the stereotypical view of Eastern European cinema is in the eyes of the general public, Spasojević claimed that “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 region”. As a result, he anointed A Serbian Film as “a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government.”
Comparing the plot to “the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotize you to things you don’t want to do,” he urged to his prospective audience that they’d “have to feel the violence to know what it’s about.” To justify such a depraved storyline, Spasojević offered the simplest of solutions that backed up their intent to make a mockery of Serbia’s lack of censorship: “In Serbia we don’t have ratings, there is no law forbidding anything from being shown in a film, and there is no law forbidding anyone from buying a ticket.”
That didn’t apply to the Philippines, Spain, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, or Malaysia – all of whom banned it for various reasons – while A Serbian Film was slapped with an NC-17 in the United States and ordered to make significant alterations before being approved by the British Board of Film Classification. There are many words that have been and will be used to described A Serbian Film, but according to its two chief creative architects, “parody” was the one at the forefront of their minds.