A Serbian Film

A newborn baby, fresh from its mother’s womb, is raped; a woman’s head is cut off by a machete-wielding man as he fucks her brutally from behind; a man is raped to death using his empty eye socket. Despite the BBFC’s 49 cuts, which removed a record four minutes and 12 seconds of footage, the essence of director Srdan Spasojevic’s reductive ‘vision’ remains. These therapeutically appalling images are, he claims, an allegorical attack on the rape of Serbian artists’ minds by the ‘cinematic fascists of political correctness.’ But as ex-porn star Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is cajoled, drugged and beaten into ever more depraved acts by sleazy ‘art porn’ producer Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), this critique is lost amid a sordid welter of sexual sadism, incestuous necrophilia and ‘snuff movie’ nihilism. If the film was less skilfully executed, this would afford some protection from the punishing assault on one’s senses, a spew of sickening images reinforced by Sky Wikluh’s throbbing electro score. More offensive than anything else, though, is the filmmaker’s insult to our supposed lack of moral intelligence.