A Serbian Film

[Twonky]

(Miner spoilers included.)

 

It's had 49 individual cuts made to it, totalling nearly four minutes in length, and this is from the BBFC that pass uncut the likes of Martyrs, Inside, Switchblade Romance, Hostel 1/2, all the SAWs and so on.

 

http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/bw10c.htm#A_Serbian_Film_Cleansed_2746

 

As such, to watch it properly you're going to have to grab the screener that's doing the rounds at the moment.

 

I'd recommend you ignore completely the press around this film (and read as little about it as possible in fact), and judge for yourself. (The day The Sun sees fit to pontificate morality to me is the day I hang up my right to a functioning mind - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/3128497/Sick-Serbian-film-hits-London.html )

 

It's a quite remarkable film, I've never seen anything even remotely like it, (that's not to say such a film doesn't exist, I've just never seen it before), and I think that whilst it does scream from the country of its origin, it could, equally accurately, be titled 'A Human Film' - since Serbia and its recent history are very much a reality of times we've all lived through. (Albeit in our cases of course, rather fortunately separated from it.)

 

Do be advised that it's a tough watch, the last thirty minutes in particular are almost unbearably brutal, and whilst some critics complain that the newborn baby raping scene 'isn't very realistic' you have to wonder who on earth would want it to be?

 

It's not overly long at 1h40m, it's far better acted, scripted, and coherent than most of the utter fucking shite that comes out of the mainstream film industry these days, and it's really quite terrifying, because it's painfully close to actually being real.

 

Highly recommended, but a mark out of 10 isn't appropriate.