"A Serbian Movie" (Srpski Film) is a very disturbing noir/horror movie with a strong porn theme. A word of caution here, if you have the slighest doubt, just don't watch the movie. Also, there may or may not be spoilers in the following review.
The main character is Milos, a Serbian ex-porn star -one of the best in his line of business-, with a beautiful and loving wife, and a cute lively boy. Everything is perfect, except they have monetary problems. An opportunity comes in his way, a slightly weird porn director, Vukmir offers him main role in one of his artsy-porny films. Though he inquires, the details of the movie are unknown by Milos. He signs the contract regardless because the money is good, but he still has his doubts.
When they start to shoot the movie, we see that the casting location is an orphanage. We see a teenage girl, and then her mother, and some commotion between the mom and the girl and the cameramen (who happen to be dressed in a cop/military outfit) ensues. The first scene to be shot is between Milos and the mom, who had been just beaten by one of the cop/cameramen; and there is some talk about the women being the wife of a dead war-hero, and that she cheated on him. Things start to get weirder around here. During the (oral) sexual act, a movie of the teenage girl, innocently eating ice cream, is projected on the wall.
That night Milos has his doubts about the movie, which he shares with his wife. The next day he goes back to Vukmir, and mentions about his concerns to him. Vukmir tries to convince Milos to go on with the shooting, though unsuccessfully. At some point he shows Milos a weird porn (disturbing scene 1: the newborn porn). Milos runs out. From here on we realize Milos is drugged, with a concoction that makes him sexually very aroused and apparently obedient/zombie-like.
During the rest of the movie we see Milos, horny and mindless, is being herded by Vukmir, according to a master plan. Things go sour for everyone that is involved (except the mastermind of the mastermind), as we see through scenes of disgusting/taboo-breaking/bloodied sexual atrocities.
There's the repetitive theme of Milos coming face to face with the the mention/possibility of a sexual act with an innocent/minor (the new born porn, the tradition of virginal communion, and the most shocking last scene, which I won't mention here), and each time he manages to run away from this, except the last time, when he is tricked into it. Even while under the effect of the drugs, as soon as he realizes the situation he is in, he manages to awaken himself enough to turn the tables on the director and his thugs/cops/cameramen/whatever.
Milos' sexual potency is a metaphor of the power of a man; it makes the people near him happy, and it punishes those that are a threat to him and his kin. His wife asks him "if he does not want to fuck her", and then he shows her he can "fuck her" but he prefers to make love with her, to use his power on his family in a loving way.
Then there is the outside world. The man has to rent his power to the outside world to live. A man has to be like Milos, he has to know to whom he has to not use his power against with a clear and distinct line. And there are people (government?) who for their own benefit wants the man to use his power on those who are innocent.
The man on the street will have hard choices when trying to survive using his power for the benefit of himself and his loved ones, however the outside world will force him to use his power against innocents/his loved ones. He will try to win and gain freedom from this cycle of power, but many times he will lose, end up hurting innocents or losing his soul. And if you somehow try to fight this outside world, they might pull all your teeth and choke you by ramming their power down your throat.
A secondary metaphor in this movie, parallel to the one I just mentioned, is at the level of governments. Milos is Serbia , his wife is Croatia, his kid is Bosnia (as Vukmir proclaims in the movie, "A perfect Serbian Family"). They are a happy family: Yugoslavia (the cop brother who has his eyes on the beautiful wife could be Russia here, a world cop, I don't know). Serbia used his power to make his family happy in the past, but when they had economic problems, he wanted to use his power once more for the good of the family. However, induced in a mad/frenzied state, he is tricked into using his power on his wife and son (fucking as a weapon is no coincidence here of course, see: Mass rapes in the Bosnian War), and as soon as he realizes this, it is too late to go back to being a happy family they once were. He hugs them one last time in the bed, they are all cuddled into each other. And then bang, Yugoslavia is no more (see the map below; the mirror image of the cuddling scene in the movie). In the end we see powers-that-be, exerting their "power" onto the now broken family. The mafioso guy directs his goon to "start from the little one."
I repeat, the movie is very disturbing, and while I understand that it will be very hard to watch, even by the horror/gory savvy; you have to keep in mind that this is a totally different movie than a random pointless teen-slasher, or a hills have eyes type movie (family parallels), or a snuff film (social oppression metaphor?) . Someone who is innocent will be disturbed by the movie, because he or she will not want to know the horrors (government) which actually do exist in the real world. Someone who is used to the regular horror/gory genre will be disappointed and disturbed, because he will get the hint of deeper disturbances other than mere flesh and blood gore. Again, and i'm not saying this to create a reverse psychology and make you watch the movie: Though it is a good movie, just do not watch it if you have the slightest doubt.
