There is a film currently generating a lot of buzz at SXSW that I just had to blurb about. The title of the movie seems a playful jest on the cinematic ambiguity of a certain region of the world but the subject of the film is apparently as playful as a round of mini-golf at Auschwitz. The film is definitively titled A Serbian Film. To be clear, I have not yet seen this film. But the reaction from the horror community here at the festival has been equal parts vocal disbelief and telling speechlessness. From what I've gleaned of the topic of the film, certain questions are forming.

What is a Serbian film? This country, as noted for its horror cinema as I am noted for my career as a professional street fighter. Go ahead, name three Serbian horror films that you've seen? Need concrete evidence? Check out this link to IMDB showing the search results of Serbia and horror. Why does this matter to anyone ever? Because from what I'm hearing about Serbian Film, the film itself may be an angry reaction to the assumption that hardcore horror is a game in which only America and/or France participate.

Serbian Film could be the movie that forces all of us to sit-up and take note of a country that most of us probably can't find on a map. Not only that, but it could be a reaction to the whispers that Serbia's pornography industry is among the more prolific on the planet. What is certain is that there is not one person I've talked to, and there are beaucoup de horror geeks to chose from right now, who walked out of that theater unscathed. Attendees, not specific to critics, were either strongly lauding the film as a landmark or angrily protesting its vile content.

I am terrified to see a film like this. The nauseatingly popular catch-phrase torture porn is going to be tested by Serbian Film. When Martyrs is being described as a more entertaining romp, the concept of shock for shock sake is suspect. Do we like watching people brutalized for two hours in the most unspeakable ways? No, but films like Serbian Film apparently carry with them a very sociopolitical subtext that at least demand a single viewing. Basically I just wanted to throw in my two cents on the buzz currently surrounding the film. I will catch it here, and from what I'm hearing you should catch it as soon as it is made available to you.