'The Sickest Film Ever': A Serbian Film

Details

A Serbian Film
Directed by Srdjan Spasojevic
Invincible Pictures
Opens May 13
Cinema Village

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More About

• Srdjan Spasojevic
• Nikola Tesla
• Sitges Film Festival
• Crime and Law
• Crime

Milos (Srdjan Spasojevic), an aging Serbian stud—the “Nikola Tesla of the pornographic world”—is retired from dirty movies. Having trouble supporting his wife and young son, he accepts a vague One Last Job proposal from self-styled auteur Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic). As soon as this “art” project starts to veer toward child exploitation, Milos tells Vukmir he’s out. Milos wakes up three days later, covered in bruises and dried blood, with no clue what happened. The production’s video tapes reveal that Vukmir drugged Milos to turn him into a zombie who could fuck “freely,” without moral qualms over things like murder and incest. Branded “the sickest film ever” during its 2010 festival run, Film’s rep was bolstered when a Spanish judge levied child-porn charges against the head of the Sitges Film Festival for showing the movie. The version opening in the States has been edited so that its two instances of child rape are implied via dialogue rather than seen onscreen. It’s certainly no less unsettling, and remains a passionate argument against a no-holds-barred exploration of extreme human sexuality and violence. Virtually every moment of screen time not given over to stomach-churning brutality consists of dialogue about the sick, sad state of post-Milosevic Serbian society. It’s specious lip service; that the film exists at all is a more cogent commentary on the nation’s collective trauma than any of the direct statements or potential metaphors contained within. As black as relatively high-budget exploitation cinema gets, Film does have glimmers of comic relief, mostly via the crazed filmmaker who—even as his star has nearly beaten him to death—lets the cameras roll and cheers him on: “That’s the cinema!”