What’s more, it is clear from the opening scenes that A Serbian Film is not just another rehashed, insincere homage to the age of exploitation cinema. As with many of the past’s most infamous movies, the intention of the film is to confront social issues through the graphic depiction of extremity, a wake up call to the passive, blockbuster-devouring masses to sit up and take note of the injustice and corruption that surrounds them. Srdjan Spasojevic, the first time director of A Serbian Film, has described his debut feature as “a diary of molestation by the Serbian Government”. The film later went on to premiere at the Raindance Film Festival under the facade of a private event, but is A Serbian Film really a meaningful, relevant mind-fuck, or yet another trashy example of hype proceeding a fall? The British tabloids have already been sharpening their knives in anticipation of A Serbian Film’s release after it was pulled from its headline slot at this year’s Film4 Frightfest (this was due to the fact that the festival organisers felt it wrong to screen a heavily cut edit of the film after the uncut version was banned from screening by Westminster City Council). If the UK’s Daily Mail is to be believed, A Serbian Film has something to offend everyone. However, with the release this Friday of Eastern European indie horror A Serbian Film (2010), controversy has seemingly passed into the realm of objectivity, as the film goes out of its way to poke, penetrate and graphically portray the large majority of the 21st Century’s remaining social/sexual taboos. Controversy is, of course, entirely subjective – Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004) was controversial in the context of its religious content, whilst David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996) amassed the majority of its notoriety through the film’s exploration of sexual fetishism. They’re also going to be rolling the film out on video on demand and on mobile devices via a service called FlixFling.There are, it would seem, a growing number of films that can claim to have at one stage carried the hallowed moniker ‘the most controversial film of all time’. Invincible Pictures has an exclusive deal with Showtime to show the R-rated version.
Whether you like it or you don’t like it, it has been a long time since I’ve sat and watched a movie and had that kind of an emotional reaction to it.” It definitely sets itself apart from the Hostels and some of the other torture porn…I’ve never had a movie affect me in the way this film did. “I just thought it was a really good movie. Everything that happens in the movie happens for a purpose,” Ashley said. Shocking and disturbing as it is, this is really a well-made film.
I really don’t see that, especially after talking to the film-makers. “Everybody likes to say it’s an exploitation film. However, Ashley fiercely defends the picture. One of Ashley’s colleagues fainted at a market screening of the film in Cannes.
Further down the line, Invincible will release the full film in an unrated DVD version.Ī Serbian Film has been eliciting extreme responses wherever it has been shown. However, Ashley acknowledged that bigger chains will require an R-rated version. The company has already been in talks with some independent exhibitors, who will be willing to show the film in its full uncut version. We are going to take it out as wide as we can,” Invincible’s Thomas Ashley said.
“We are planning a release in early 2011 in theatres. Invincible is planning on distributing A Serbian Film in US theatres next year.
In the UK, where it will be released by Revolver, the film has provoked a fierce row about censorship. Invincible Pictures has swooped to take North American rights to A Serbian Film, one on the most controversial films in the market.Ī Serbian Film (sold by Jinga) has already been pulled from two festivals because of its violence and extreme imagery.