Hacker Cinema
A Serbian Film
Srpski film
2010 · Film · 104 min
Directed by Srđan Spasojević
Retired porn star Miloš leads a normal family life trying to make ends meet. Presented with the opportunity of a lifetime to financially support his family for the rest of their lives, Miloš must participate in one last mysterious film. From then on, Miloš is drawn into a maelstrom of unbelievable cruelty and mayhem.
3 negative6 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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9 comments on Hacker News
> The same movies are shown in Scandinavian cinemas
Maybe it's better now but Scandinavia has had their moments of censorship keeping those "same movies" out of theaters. Sweden banned The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Mad Max, and even ET (for ages under 11). Norway banned Ichi the Killer, I Spit on Your Grave, and A Serbian Film.
Generated content will never have social capital.
People not only watch Star Wars because it's a great movie. People watch it because other people do. They can discuss it, they can argue about it, they can share it. A teenager watches Serbian film to show off how badass he is, or Primer to show off how smart he is, plays Dark Souls to show off his skill.
With generated content, you don't have those qualities. I'm actually working on one project like this, and it's a great challenge.
Consuming media may seem like "single player" game when you just sit and watch it, but it's never really is.
If somebody managed to raise the money to make multiple human centipede films, or "a serbian film", anything is possible.
There are movies that are worth that one watch, but you'll never watch them again. Schindler's List is one of these.
And then there are movies like A Serbian Filme, where just reading the Wikipedia synopsis[1] is enough to nope the F out.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serbian_Film
You explained very well a puzzle that has been in my mind for quite a while, too. Thank you for putting that into words!
I am amazed that there's so much hypocrisy around different categories of violence in fiction. It's even worse than other manifestations of hypocrisy, because this one seems completely invisible to people — I don't recall having seen this discussed anywhere until I read your comment today.
Case in point: when https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serbian_Film came out, there was so much talk about it being immoral and/or illegal, and so many (eventually successful) calls to boycott, censor and ban. I have not watched the film, and I do not think I'll ever watch it, because judging by what I read about it, it seems utterly disgusting and horrifying. Disgusting to the level of scenes depicting the raping of a newborn, and the most imaginative mix of necrophilia, torture, rape, and gore. I think I could not stand it, and if I forced myself to watch it, I suspect I'd have nightmares (literally). So what follows is by no means a defence of this particular work, nor an endorsement of gloating over the most extreme and shocking forms of violence an artist/performer can conceive.
At the same time, there are so many depictions of violence in mainstream film, games, TV and literature. By far, most of that violence is done to male characters (and incidentally, also by male characters). That violence is usually not sexual in nature.
As Vladimir Nabokov put it, art has to be transgressive and shocking.
One more idea to consider: violence (as most things) comes in gradations. Murder > torture > punch > pinch. Rape > harassment. Actual violence > threat of violence. Violence to several people > violence to one. Sadistic violence > plain violence > violence as self-defence > physically restraining an aggressor. Violence committed taking advantage of physical superiority > violence among equals. Etc. There is no gradation, however, contingent on the sex of the victim nor on the sex of the perpetrator: violence towards men ≡ violence towards women.
Why then, it is so controversial to depict rape or sexual abuse, but so commonplace to rejoice in depictions of murder, torture and physical aggression?
I wonder how the future will classify AI generated content which depicting things like CP[1] but where none of the actors are real. We haven't quite crossed that threshold yet but wouldn't be surprised if something like this were to hit the headlines some time very soon. Will people claim that this is a valuable surrogate to keep these sick people from acting on real victims or will we see claims that it encourages them (like terrorists get radicalized etc).
[1] but not only. other genres like snuff would come to mind. How about an AI generated take on "A Serbian Film"
It would have been better to offer free screenings of A Serbian Film to movie critics and bloggers, and then nobody else would have wanted to watch the atrocity.
The power to block movie releases is common. For example, A Serbian Film "has been banned in Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Norway, and South Korea, and was temporarily banned from screening in Brazil."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serbian_Film
Torture Porn - A splatter film or gore film is a sub-genre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence[1]
Some are even torture porn with explicitly detailed and violent rape scenes[2]. These are also planned to be banned if I am not mistaken.[3]
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatter_film [2] http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/03/15/a-serbian-film-shocks-midnight-audiences-at-sxsw/ [3.a] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/11/torture-porn-attitudes-assessed-bbfc_n_1664557.html [3.b] http://www.theweek.co.uk/film/50537/uk-film-censor-get-tougher-torture-porn-movies