A SERBIAN FILM
DVD region 2. Revolver.

Unless you've been living in a hole during 2010, you'll probably be aware of A Serbian Film, which has left a trail of outraged reviews, bans and general controversy in its wake since it first appeared. The UK release has become a cause celebré, with over four minutes sliced from it by the BBFC (a huge amount by modern standards) - something that distributors Revolver have admirably not tried to whitewash, even though it will certainly mean fewer sales.

Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) is a washed-up porn star who is tempted out of retirement by Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), a wealthy and decidedly creepy producer who claims that he is making 'art porn', but refuses to tell Milos anything about the story. Unable to resist a huge payday, the actor agrees to star, only to find himself caught up ina nightmare world of violence and horror.

A Serbian Film is challenging viewing, no question - though anyone who has watched the more extreme end of low budget horror, from Nekromantik to August Underground, won't find it quite as shocking as mainstream critics. That said, the juxtaposition of sex and violence -and the frequent involvement of children - is pretty jaw-dropping and thoroughly unnerving, and while I have no doubt that the film is the political allegory that the makers claim - they labour the point throughout the film after all - it's hard to accept that at least some scenes - a man being skull-fucked through the eye-socket by a hard cock for instance - were not included mainly for shock value. There's nothing wrong with that, but let's be honest about it.

Outside the shock tactics though, this is a surprisingly well made film. It looks slick, is well made and the plot structure - running as straight narrative for the first hour before suddenly switching to flashbacks - works well. The content might be upsetting for some, but by any conventional cinematic standards, this is a good movie - warped and brutal, but a good movie, helped enormously by confident, adventurous direction and Todorovic's convincing performance as a man who finds his life torn apart in unspeakable ways.

But here's what you really want to know - how do the cuts affect the film? Well, of course they damage it considerably. A few are smooth enough to be unnoticeable, others are jarringly obvious and effectively destroy the scene in question, and none are necessary. The fact is that what is left in remains taboo-breaking, brutal, upsetting, and is just as likely to tip the unbalanced over the edge as the cut material (i.e. it's very unlikely to). I'd hoped we'd passed the days when the censors felt that they could 'protect' people by cutting a few seconds here and there - especially as past examples of this behaviour have long since been reversed - but seemingly not.

I imagine that many of you will have written this release off as soon as those cuts were made. If not, I'll say that the UK version is still powerful, disturbing stuff and certainly worth a look if this is your only option. I'm not suggesting you'll enjoy it particularly, but you certainly won't forget it. And it's unquestionably the must-see film of the year.

The DVD comes with an introduction from director Srdjan Spasojevic as well as a recording of a Q&A at an unnamed screening.

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (UK) DVD • BLU-RAY