A Serbian Film Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: A Serbian Film
Year: 2010
Director: Srdjan Spasojvic
Country: Serbia
Language: Serbian

Violence has indeed lost its subversive power. Long gone are the days where movie audiences, unexposed to onscreen sex and gore. shook in awe at the taboos brought before them. Since then "snuff' has lost its mysterious an innovative power. The exploitation flick was popularized over 40 years ago, thus making A Serbian Film boring and outdated. This is surely a picture which will be forgotten as quickly as it came. Of course the political implications imposed by the Director are far more shocking than it's shallow NC-17 rating. This review will not go on about Serbian Films' violence, but rather its politics. 

The protagonist at the center of  very intimate crimes which include necrophilia and pedophilia, played by Srdjan Todorovic, is constantly being ordered, drugged, coerced, forced and threatened by a mad director behind the camera filming the snuff movie in the making.

 Even after the 49 cuts demanded by the BBFC, A Serbian Film often makes lists dedicated to the sought after accolade "nastiest movie ever made." I agree, but not due to the visuals we see on screen. The director, Srdjan Spasojvic insists: "This is a diary of our own molestation by the Serbian government. It's about the monolithic power of leaders who hypnotize you to do things you don't want to do." He refers to ethnic cleansing and the government’s implication in it, an era he has personally lived through. Unfortunately this picture is not like Downfall, where we are shown a depiction of a past Germany that is now clean, this terrible injustice is still part of the country’s ideological and non-cathartic discourse. 

In 2011 Slavisa Buric was commemorated as a national hero, despite the fact that he was responsible for mass rapes and the notorious Srebrenica massacre. Flags depicting Ratko Mladic, a war criminal charged with the Bosnian genocide hung during a ceremony which mourned the loss of 700,000 citizens who were murdered for the sake of ethnic cleansing in the late 80's to early 90's. Srjadan tries to justify the criminal actions of his countrymen, and their warped ideolody by stating "the government made us do it!". There is nothing more disgusting than people who try to redeem themselves from the responsibility of genocide. Extreme nationalism is not injected into an individual by any government body.

In conclusion, the ideology behind A Serbian Film is as bad as any 1930's German propaganda film. I'd put this right up there with The Eternal Jew. The country and it's citizens need to be justified long after the initial tragedy is downright bizarre. It is also strange that viewers are shocked by the images onscreeen rather than the ideology behind it. If you didn't know about this Serbia's history before then I encourage you to read about it yourself. Piss on it! 0.5/5