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Serbia Goran Gocić
F
or a few years, Shock Corridor, Aleksandar Radivojevic and Nenad Bekvalac’s television show about cinema, regularly preached more gore, more perversion, more violence and more Takashi Miike in Serbian cinema. Looking at some film releases over the last year, someone may have been listening.
Srdjan Todorovic in Srdjan Spasojevic’s A Serbian Movie
Radivojevic’s own A Serbian Movie (Srpski film) was about an unemployed actor who strays into the Serbian porn underworld. Radivojevic significantly contributed to the trend with his masterful stage play, Suicidal Hook, starring Bekvalac, which premiered in 2009. It seems that a self-styled horror genre has finally forced its way into the Serbian cinema.
Emilio Rosso in Milan Todorovic and Milan Konjevic’s Zone of the Dead
Among the first Serbian premieres in 2009 was Zone of the Dead (Zona mrtvih), a zombie horror film shot in English (in the notoriously polluted Belgrade suburb of Pancevo), with a local crew and starring Ken Foree (who appeared in George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead). This Serbian-Italian-Spanish coproduction, directed by Milan Konjevic and Milan Todorovic, was one of the few original franchises made here. It was followed by Mladen Djordjevic’s The Life and Death of a Porn Gang (Zivot i smrt porno bande), a smart, socially conscious slasher that smacked of early John Waters. A bunch of losers decide to hit the road and present their porn theatre in the Serbian backwaters. Their luck changes when a German businessman asks them to make snuff movies. And finally, Aleksandar
Here and There (Tamo i ovde), an excellent debut feature by Darko Lungulov (a SerbianUS-German co-production), was awarded the New York Best Narrative prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. Told with unusual subtlety, it is the story of a down-and-out American musician, played by David Thornton, who is involved in a fake marriage scheme to a Serbian woman. Singer Cyndi Lauper features in a cameo role. The Belgrade Phantom (Beogradski fantom), a Serbian-Hungarian-
Jovan Todorovic’s The Belgrade Phantom
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Bulgarian co-production directed by Jovan Todorovic, is a drama-documentary about a notorious Belgrade driver who, in the 1970s, teased the local police for weeks in a stolen white Porsche 911. Made for television, it performed surprisingly well in cinemas, even entering the top ten at the box office. Vladimir Perisic’s Ordinary People (Obicni ljudi), a Serbian-French-Swiss co-production, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes and was awarded the Best Film prize at Cottbus Film Festival. It deals with the moral conundrum faced by soldiers in an unnamed location who are ordered to execute men and boys in civilian clothing for no given reason. The Ambulance (Hitna pomoc), a SerbianGerman-Greek co-production, was written and directed by the documentary filmmaker, Goran Radovanovic. All of these ambitious newcomers succeeded, miraculously, in securing finance from abroad.
Aleksa Gajic’s Technotise – Edit and I
There remained a few home-grown films. The most impressive and unique was Technotise – Edit and I (Technotise – Edit i ja), a highly accomplished animated sci-fi drama set in Belgrade in 2074. It was written and directed by Aleksa Gajic. Zelimir Zilnik’s The Old School of Capitalism (Stara skola kapitalizma) is a funny account of the state of Serbian companies, while writer-director
Zelimir Zilnik’s The Old School of Capitalism
Miroslav Momcilovic’s Wait for Me, and I Surely Won’t Come (Cekaj me, a ja sigurno necu doci) is a modern variation on Chekhov’s The Seagull, set in New Belgrade’s projects, where everybody is in love but no one is able to reciprocate. Vladimir Paskaljevic’s (son of filmmaker Goran) cruel urban drama, Devil’s Town (Djavolja varos), Marko Novakovic’s series of stories about abortion, Someone is Still Waiting (Neko me ipak ceka), and Milos Pasic’s Autumn in My Street (Jesen u mojoj ulici), a day in the life of two twentysomethings, felt more like films made for television (Novakovic’s was, but RTS decided on screenings at a number of festivals first) and this was reflected in the audience response. They preferred Rade Markovic’s Second World War spoof, Comrade Black in WW2 (Drug Crni u NOB-u). In The Tour (Turneja), writer/director Goran Markovic presented a similar idea to The Life and Death of a Porn Gang. Its protagonists are stage actors in a multi-ethnic troupe on tour around Yugoslavia in the early days of the civil war. Markovic’s Serbian-Bosnian co-production was released late in 2008 and received Serbian critics’ majority vote as the best film of the year. It also performed relatively well at the box office, just outside the top ten, even though it was released so late in the year. Honeymoon (Medeni mesec), directed by Goran Paskaljevic, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The first SerbianAlbanian co-production, it is another story from the troubled Balkan border. Besa, written and
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directed by Srdjan Karanovic, is a First World War tale about forbidden love, whose finance came from six countries around the region. The most eagerly expected premiere and the year’s biggest box-office success was Srdjan Dragojevic’s costly St. George Shoots the Dragon (Sveti Georgije ubiva azdahu). With a budget in the region of €4.5 million, it is one of the most expensive domestic films ever made. Based on Dusan Kovacevic’s famous stage play (he also wrote the screenplay), it is about a group of invalids forced to stay at home following the introduction of the draft at the start of the First World War. When they begin to take advantage of the women in the villages and towns, the authorities are left with no choice but to send the injured men to the front. Albanian characters are apparently chic this season, as was seen in Honeymoon, Besa and Serbian Scars, directed by Brent Huff. A US action movie without finance from Serbia, but not without compassion for the Serbian cause, it was written by Vladimir Rajcic, who also produced and played in it, alongside Mark Dacascos and Michael Madsen. It seems that Serbia is becoming the new shooting location for international productions. It is cheaper then Hungary or Bulgaria and American money has created the Serbian Film Commission for the purpose of expanding opportunities in the country. Rian Johnson’s Brothers Bloom was shot here and Ralph Fiennes announced he would film his version of Coriolanus here in 2010. The year’s best films Here and There (Darko Lungulov) Technotise – Edit and I (Aleksa Gajic) The Life and Death of a Porn Gang (Mladen Djordjevic) The Old School of Capitalism (Zelimir Zilnik) Quote of the year ‘Boring, pathetic and vapid state-funded films are done by people who don’t know first thing about cinema. They are, however, generously
David Thornton in Darko Lungulov’s Here and There
supported by bureaucratic foreign film funds which stick to their politically correct manuals to produce inarticulate treatises about transition and peace-making. We had enough of sad rubbish about ethnic girls with matches. That’s why I activated my old noir idea about a porn actor who is drawn into narco-snuff hell. Director Srdjan Spasojevic established a production house symbolically called Counterfilm and we launched a crusade to complete this project.’ Screenwriter
ALEKSANDAR RADIVOJEVIC explains the genesis of A Serbian Movie. Directory All Tel/Fax numbers begin (+381 11) Film Center Serbia, Zagrebacka 9/III, 11000 Belgrade. Tel: 262 51 31. Fax: 263 42 53. fcs.office@fcs.rs. www.fcs.rs. Yugoslav Film Archive, Knez Mihajlova 19, 11000 Belgrade. Tel/Fax: 262 25 55. kinoteka@org.rs. www.kinoteka.org.yu. Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Bulevar Umetnosti 20, 11070 Belgrade. Tel: 213 56 84. Fax: 213 08 62. fduinfo@eunet.rs. www.fdubg.com. Film in Serbia, Dalmatinska 17, 11000 Belgrade. Tel/Fax: 329 20 24. info@filminserbia.com. www.filminserbia.com.
GORAN GOCIĆ is a broadcast and print journalist whose works have been published by over 30 media outlets in eight languages. He has written chapters in 15 books on the mass media, edited several magazines, authored studies on Warhol, Kusturica and pornography and directed two feature-length documentaries.