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Transgressive Edge Play and Srpski Film/A Serbian Film

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Transgressive Edge Play and Srpski Film/A Serbian Film HOST 5 (1) pp. 107–125 Intellect Limited 2014 Horror Studies Volume 5 Number 1 © 2014 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/host.5.1.107_1 shaun Kimber Bournemouth University Transgressive edge play and Srpski Film/A Serbian Film absTracT Keywords Using Srpski Film/A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, 2010) as a case study this transgressive edge play article examines transgressive edge play within contemporary horror film. The production article starts by outlining two main assumptions: that transgression within horror narrative cinema is customary rather than the exception; and that it is productive to study aesthetics horror films holistically as a set of social and industrial practices, as an aesthetic censorship object and as a social and cultural experience. The article then presents four over- reception lapping contentions in relation to the complex ways in which A Serbian Film has engaged in transgressive edge play, in terms of its production contexts, aesthetics and narrative, and also the modes through which regulators, audiences and critics have responded to that boundary testing. An argument is developed, which contends that A Serbian Film, depending upon context and audience, has tested, infringed and also reinforced a gamut of thresholds in relation to what is contempo- raneously tolerable within horror films. inTroducTion Srpski Film/A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, 2010) has incensed, alienated and been celebrated by audiences, critics and regulators since its world premier at the American South by Southwest Film Festival on 15 March 2010. These polarized reactions result from complex intersections between textual, inter- textual and extratextual factors operating across national and transnational contexts. A Serbian Film offers an intriguing contemporary example of what 107 HOST_5.1_Kimber_107-125.indd 107 3/26/14 10:33:19 AM Shaun Kimber 1. For more information is considered transgressive edge play within horror film cultures. Whilst there on this type of approach to the are a number of horror films including Murder Set Pieces (Palumbo, 2004), study of film refer to Gurotesuku/Grotesque (Shiraishi, 2009), The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) J. Harbord (2002), M. (Six, 2011) and The Bunny Game (Rehmeier, 2010) that exhibit high levels of Jancovich et al. (2003), Kimber (2010, 2011), G. boundary testing, none of them has ignited the level of attention and contro- Turner (1999, 2002). versy that A Serbian Film has. Influenced by the work of Foucault, transgression is considered an inevi- table and desirable impulse that prevents cultural stagnation, through the continuous and simultaneous encroaching, falling short of, breaking and crucially the reinforcing and repairing of boundaries (Jenks 2003). These boundaries and their associated thresholds are often social, cultural, political, economic or aesthetic in nature. Such discursively constructed boarders are continuously wittingly and unwittingly negotiated, institutionalized, policed and contested within ongoing cycles of boundary construction, maintenance and resistance operating across personal, institutional and transnational arenas (Kuhn 1988). Moreover, transgression involves complex, active and productive sets of overlapping processes operating dynamically across textual, intertextual and extratextual contexts (Jenks 2003). Seen in this light A Serbian Film’s transgressive edge play resides in its ability, depending upon context and audience, to impinge, contravene and ultimately restore the fraying ends of what is held to be tolerable within contemporary horror films. This edge play comes into particularly sharp focus when considering borderlines linked to representations of sex, violence, sexual violence and children in violent, sexual and sexually violent contexts. My enquiry into A Serbian Film’s transgressive edge play is developed across four overlapping trajectories: (1) the transgression of industrial prac- tices and generic conventions, explored by locating A Serbian Film’s produc- tion within its constitutive national context and also examining the cultural exchange between Serbian and American cinemas; (2) A Serbian Film’s trans- gression of film conventions linked to content, style, narrative and form, identified through a close textual analysis of the film; (3) A Serbian Film’s transgression of regulatory and legal frameworks linked to national guide- lines, perceived risk factors and readings of public acceptability in the United Kingdom; and (4) the transgression of the norms and values of various taste cultures surveyed from an analysis of Internet Movie Database (IMDb) user votes and the critical reception of A Serbian Film in the United Kingdom. This intersecting approach foregrounds the importance of examining horror film as a set of social and industrial practices informed by local, national and global contexts, as an aesthetic object and as a social and cultural experience.1 The overall aim is not to reject or celebrate A Serbian Film but to use it as a case study through which to explore transgressive edge play within contemporary horror film cultures. conTexTs of producTion, culTural borrowing and narraTive reimagining An important element in A Serbian Film’s transgressive edge play derives from its production on the fringes of the Serbian film industry. A Serbian Film was the directorial debut of Srdjan Spasojevic and was co-written with the Serbian horror film critic and writer, Aleksander Radivojevic. The Serbian language horror film was independently financed and produced by Contra Film within an underfunded Serbian film industry. According to co-executive producer Nikola Pantelic; 108 HOST_5.1_Kimber_107-125.indd 108 3/25/14 8:41:47 AM Transgressive edge play and Srpski Film/A Serbian Film A Serbian Film really is an independent movie […] For the past thirty 2. In 2010 A Serbian Film screened at film years the state hasn’t given any money to support the Serbian film festivals in Belgium, industry. So the film was funded privately […] A Serbian Film is our Estonia, Serbia, production answer to all those who said it couldn’t be done, but we American, Canada, South Korea, France, made a true Serbian film without any Serbian Government help at all. Spain, Finland and (Jones 2010: 6) Sweden. During the year it was also withdrawn from A Serbian Film was shot on a RED One HD Digital camera in and around a number of film Belgrade. The shoot lasted 61 days during August–October 2008. The film festivals, including employed Serbian and European cast and crew, including Srdjan Todorovic Frightfest in London. (Underground (Kusturica, 1995)) and Sergej Trifunovic (Karaula/The Boarder Post (Grlic, 2006)) two of Serbia’s biggest actors; rapper Wiklum Sky of the Serbian hip hop trio Bad Company composed the techno score; Nemanja Jovanov, who also worked on The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (Djordjevic, 2009), was cinematographer and colorist; Miroslav Lakrobija, who also worked on The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009) and Zone of the Dead (Konjevic and Todorovic, 2009), worked on special effects and make-up; and Darko Simic was the films’ editor. After generating controversy in Germany, when the print was blown up to 35mm, and then in Hungary, America, Belgium and Estonia, A Serbian Film started to generate attention at home. It was released theatrically in Serbia during June 2010 to take advantage of its initial global reception.2 Whilst produced within Serbia, the film-makers openly acknowledge their interest in and adaption of the styles, conventions and political motivations of 1970s American genre and auteur films. So another foundational element of A Serbian Film’s transgressive edge play is its culturally specific borrowing and reworking of American cinema. The outcome is the creation of a film that exhibits complex, ambiguous and contradictory meanings that are resistant to easy analysis and interpretation. As co-writer Radivojevic outlines: We were big genre fans, especially of American 1970’s cinema. Solely because nothing like the subject matters they dealt with had ever been expressed in Serbian cinema before. So we adopted a genre we loved to say some really important, if brutally harsh, things about our shared experience. (Jones 2010: 6) Moreover, Spasojevic sites the stylistic influences of David Cronenberg, Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Sam Peckinpah and William Friedkin on A Serbian Film. According to Nevena Dakovic (2006) and Ivana Kronja (2006) the evoking of Euro-American cinematic forms and the influence of American action and gangster cinema on contemporary Serbian cinema has occurred for five reasons: (1) as a form of ideological resistance against the repression of Slobodan Milosevic’s post-communist nationalist regime that often saw the West as its enemy; (2) to promote those cinematic forms, for example the use of American film language due to its perceived superiority in the representation of violence; (3) to develop Serbian cinema’s national cinematographic form; (4) to increase the films chances of being success- ful in entertainment markets within which these cinemas are recognized as being accomplished; and (5) to highlight trans-national correspondences and ideologically to align itself with nations that are perceived to be more powerful. 109 HOST_5.1_Kimber_107-125.indd 109 3/25/14 8:41:47 AM Shaun Kimber An outcome of this cultural borrowing and localized reimagining is a narrative that engages in transgressive edge play through a story that focuses on taboo and excess; characters who exhibit
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