Serb Your Enthusiasm Wednesday, December 1 2010 It has divided audiences, shocked critics, been banned in Spain and even caused one US distributor to faint as he tried to leave a screening earlier this year, but A Serbian Film received a rousing reception at a special screening in London this week. Playing to an almost packed audience at the Prince Charles Cinema, off Leicester Square, Revolver invited us along to see what all the fuss was about. There was an eerie anticipation in the air as the opening credits came up and the dark thriller began. It tells the stark tale of a semi-retired porn star Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) who is tempted to make one last film with visionary director Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic). Without telling Milos what the film is about, Vukmir offers him vast amounts of money and a chance to change his and his family’s lives in Serbia. All he has to do is go along with what Vukmir says and do what he’s good at – playing the porn star. But as Milos becomes embroiled in the sick world Vukmir has created for him, he becomes aware that he is in danger of losing his very soul. The film is never less than gruesome, gory and frightening and pushes so many boundaries with its depiction of paedophilia and necrophilia, this Raygun correspondent expected at least a few disgruntled boos from the audience. But it was a mainly positive reaction with congratulatory phrases like ‘excruciatingly powerful and fantastic’ and ‘a very different, important film’ being offered to director/producer Srdjan Spasojevic at the post screening Q&A. Srdjan began by explaining how the film came about: “The starting point was to express our anger about the last two decades of wars in Serbia and the moral nightmare that exists there. “We never made any plans to make any shocking or controversial film, or to break any records. We just wanted to express ourselves in the most exact and direct way possible and maybe that kind of honest approach resulted in a tough film.”
Srdjan is sticking to his guns that A Serbian Film “was never intended to shock” and that it is “a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government”. He claims: “It’s about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotise you to do things you don’t want to do” and that audiences “have to feel the violence to know what it’s about”. And the young, decidedly normal looking filmmaker looks so sincere you can’t help but believe him. Answering a question about the role of the family in his film, Srdjan said he “wanted to show a perfect family – an educated wife, a beautiful child – but they couldn’t survive in this society” and explained that in Serbia “women and children are treated as male property and men are allowed to mistreat them in the most inhumane ways”. A Serbian Film was originally due to appear in August at Frightfest but Westminster Council refused to allow the movie to be shown unless it was certificated. The BBFC only granted an 18 certificate after a compulsory 49 cuts were made and Frightfest organisers pulled it. This is the most number of cuts in any movie in almost two decades (in 1994 the Indian movie Nammavar was cut by 5 minutes and 8 seconds), yet this heightened sense of controversy seems to have garnered this independent movie some priceless exposure. However, it was when answering questions about the cuts made to the film that Srdjan became most animated. “I never watched the entire film in this version. So of course I cannot be happy about it because the whole feel of the film has changed, the message has changed. But unfortunately that is the way of the world.” Film journalist and Frightfest organiser Alan Jones, who was chairing the Q&A, also shed some light on just what the BBFC took umbrage to. “There was a lot to do with the children in juxtaposition of the actual action but I know Srdjan went to great lengths not to involve the children in anything while shooting. The filmmakers also made it very clear at the time that it had been run past a lawyer and nothing in the film in the uncut version was deemed obscene under UK law at all so we still don’t understand why the BBFC came down so heavily on it.” Cuts or no, A Serbian Film will arrive at cinemas and to stream online (at www.indiemoviesonline.com) on December 10 and on DVD and Blu-ray on January 10 and is still one of the most notorious films to come this way for a good few years. That weight it carries with it ensures interest, something Revolver and its agency will be capitalising on come the release.