serbian film

A serbian film

Having grown up in Serbia, during the Bronze and Iron Ages, I am always fascinated by the ancient civilizations that inhabited these lands before the Roman Empire.After some delay the film was eventually passed with an 18 certificate for UK DVD in October 2010 with 4 mins 12 secs of cuts. These included heavy edits to scenes featuring sexual violence and children (including the rape of a newborn baby and a young boy and all scenes which feature both a child and sexual images), the graphic rape and murder of Jeca's mother, and camcorder footage of Lejla being orally raped and killed. A projected uncut cinema showing at the Bournemouth film festival was cancelled when the distributors failed to submit the film for a cinema certificate in time (amidst controversy about the film from assorted councilors), and a theatrical certificate was finally granted by the BBFC in November. The same cuts were made as per the DVD submission.

TIME

via GIPHY

A bloodied Miloš wakes up in his bed some time later with no memory of what has happened. He returns to the now abandoned set and finds a number of tapes. Viewing them, Miloš discovers that he was drugged to induce an aggressive, sexually aroused, and suggestible state. At Vukmir's manipulative direction, Miloš beats and rapes Jeca's mother before decapitating her to induce rigor mortis and later, a catatonic Miloš is sodomized by Vukmir's security. He then watches footage of Lejla voicing concern for Miloš, only to be restrained as her teeth are removed. A masked man then enters the room and forces his penis down her throat to kill her by suffocation. The footage continues as Miloš is led to Jeca's home where an elderly woman praises him for killing her mother and offers Jeca as a "virgin commune." Miloš refuses and escapes through a window to an alleyway, where he watches a girl pass by. He begins masturbating and is assaulted by a group of thugs before they are killed by Raša, who then takes Miloš back to a warehouse with Vukmir.

The film was due to screen on 29 August 2010 at the Film Four FrightFest in London, UK but was pulled by the organizers following the intervention of Westminster Council. Films shown at this festival are usually shown pre-certificate but in this case Westminster Council refused to grant permission for its exhibition until it had been classified by the BBFC. Following its DVD submission to the BBFC (there were no theatrical materials available in the time frame requested for a proper theatrical classification), 49 cuts totaling four minutes and eleven seconds were requested for DVD certification. The UK distributor, Revolver Entertainment, initially looked into the possibilities of the process, but it became clear that the film would then have to be resubmitted to the BBFC and further cuts may then have been required. It was decided that to show a heavily edited version was not in the spirit of the festival and consequently its exhibition was pulled from the schedule. The film was replaced at the festival by Rodrigo Cortés' Buried starring Ryan Reynolds. (Source: en.wikipedia.org)

FILM

In March 2009, six months after the shooting wrapped, film's director Spasojević and writer Radivojević stated that the at-that-point-still-unreleased film is a parody of modern Serbian-made politically correct films that are financed by foreign arts council funds such as Eurimages. When asked about the decision to name their movie Srpski Film, Radivojević answered: "We have become synonymous with chaos and lunacy. The title is a cynical reference to that image. Srpski Film is also a metaphor for our [Serbian] national cinema—boring, predictable and altogether unintentionally hilarious which to a certain extent is commented on and subtly parodied throughout our film." Similarly, Radivojević dismisses Serbian cinema as "pathetic state-financed films made by people who have no sense or connection to film, but are strongly supported by foreign arts council funds", while adding: "Film quality is of no concern to them, only the bureaucratic upholding of the rule book on political correctness." In a May 2010 interview, while the film was doing rounds on the festival circuit, Spasojević is quoted as saying the film "denounces the fascism of political correctness". Questioned by the Croatian media on whether the violence depicted deals with crimes committed by Serbian soldiers during the Yugoslav Wars, Spasojević answered: "Srpski Film does not touch upon war themes, but in a metaphorical way deals with the consequences of postwar society and a man that is exploited to the extreme in the name of securing the survival of his family."

While promoting the film's December 2010 UK theatrical release, Spasojević stated that the character of Vukmir is "an exaggerated representation of the new European film order", adding: "In Eastern Europe, 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 [Balkan] region ... the Western world has lost feelings, so they're searching for false ones, they want to buy feelings." In Serbia, the retired porn star Milos is married with his beloved wife Marija and they have a little son, Peter, that is their pride and joy. The family is facing financial difficulties, but out of the blue, Milos is contacted by the porn actress Lejla who offers him a job opportunity in an art film. Milos is introduced to the director Vukmir who offers a millionaire contract to Milos to act in a film. However, Vukmir neither show the screenplay nor tells the story to Milos. Milos discusses the proposal with Marija and he signs the contract. But soon he finds that Vukmir and his crew are involved in sick snuff films of pedophilia, necrophilia and torture and there is no way back for him and maybe it is too late to protect his family. After some delay the film was eventually passed with an 18 certificate for UK DVD in October 2010 with 4 mins 12 secs of cuts. These included heavy edits to scenes featuring sexual violence and children (including the rape of a newborn baby and a young boy and all scenes which feature both a child and sexual images), the graphic rape and murder of Jeca's mother, and camcorder footage of Lejla being orally raped and killed. A projected uncut cinema showing at the Bournemouth film festival was cancelled when the distributors failed to submit the film for a cinema certificate in time (amidst controversy about the film from assorted councilors), and a theatrical certificate was finally granted by the BBFC in November. The same cuts were made as per the DVD submission. (Source: www.imdb.com)