Anyone looking for mere torture porn will be disappointed because Porno Gang has the
ingredient lacking in most of those flicks: relatable human characters and intriguing dra- matic situations. This, of course, heightens the suspense once the characters become vic- tims of their choices. It’s a journey full of transgressive images – some of them are of a sexual nature (frontal nudity and explicit sex), while others bring it closer to the horror genre, such as a very convincing (but staged) scene of animal violence, the strong and bloody use of a razor (think Hellraiser II in a naturalistic environment), a sledgehammer to the head, a chainsaw decapitation, and some more conventional but exceptionally gory gunshot wounds. “The explicit imagery is more than just shock,” says Djordjevic. “Ultimately, shock is
a Porno Gang, the debut film by Mladen Djordjevic, deals with an ensemble of out- siders (junkies, gays, trannies, porn actors) travelling rural Serbia with their sex show cabaret. Sex sells badly, however, so they’re lured into making snuff films, but with a twist: unlike American horrors, in which unwilling “actors” fight to escape the clutches of insane directors, here the victims arrive voluntarily. In an environment where all hope is abandoned, a new set of outsiders appears – those willing to sac- rifice themselves to sustain their destitute families. It is not nearly as bleak as A Serbian Film, however. Though both are similarly
A
themed, expertly shot (albeit in very different styles) by Nemanja Jovanov, and boast convincing makeup effects by Miroslav Lakobrija, A Serbian Film dives into the world of pornography, snuff and splatter with obvious debts to American genre and exploitation cinema, while Porno Gang owes much more to Euro- trash and indie filmmaking. With the energy of the colourful protagonists and their grotesque adversaries (rednecks, the corrupted police, etc.), this blend of sexuality, splatter and black humour is as invigorating as, say, Takashi Miike’s Visitor Q. “This film is the result of my interest in the hidden worlds, such as the world of
porn actors – my yearning to discover that which is hidden,” explains Djordevic. “And it can be seen in the movie because, despite the violence in it, there is some warmth, too. I was not trying to protect the characters or excuse them. I wanted to have people with whom it is difficult to identify, but through the course of the film you get close to them and get to like them.”
In A Serbian Film there are obvious influences from Ameri- can, European and perhaps Japanese films. It has been com- pared to works by filmmakers as different as, say, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gaspar Noé, Pascal Laugier, Eli Roth, Tobe Hooper and Takashi Miike. What do you think about those, and who are your real influences? I grew up on the films of directors like William Friedkin, David Cronenberg, Sam Peckinpah, John Carpenter, Walter Hill and Sergio Leone. I have a deep respect for most of the names you mentioned. Stylistically, A Serbian Film doesn’t have much in common with Pasolini, but it shares his power and attitude. Noé has a note of blackness which is a thing of honesty, not of pessimism, and that’s what I like. Hooper is a special case: a man who doesn’t want to “learn the rules” of directing and has made genre cult films and a masterpiece like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Miike is one of the most fucked-up directors out there, and I mean that in the most positive sense. As for other influential names, I’d also like to mention Chan-Wook Park, Lars Von Trier, South Park and John Rambo.
The movie is riddled with scenes of atrocity; what was the most difficult sequence to shoot? The most difficult to shoot was the beheading scene because we had to combine several puppets, several different makeup effects in a country whose movie industry never had such complex demands. But in the end it all turned out excellent, I think.
Pain Personified: Milos is drugged and set loose on a victim, (opposite top) a hooded assailant, and (opposite bottom) his family suffers the aftermath.
19 RM Serbian Film isn’t the only recent film out of that
country to shock by taking us into a world where life is cheap, disposable and profitable. The Life and Death of
not particularly interesting to me. This violence in the film expresses a destructive attitude towards reality: I wanted the explicitness to be taken so far as to destroy the reality, the next step is just to make the celluloid burn. I’m interested in deepening the violence and destruction until there is a light at the end of the tunnel. To deepen it so much through the negative energy that the darkness would eventually bring some light.” The impact of the brutal images is made twice as heavy by the choice to shoot the film
in a semi-documentary, verité style, against the backdrop of rural Serbia, which is decidedly non-stylized – no dungeons with hanging chains here. Djordjevic admits that his influences are closer to a style of campy horror, as seen in the films by Chile’s Alejandro Jodorowsky and Canadian Bruce LaBruce, or at least of atypical American indie directors such as John Waters or Paul Morrissey, with the inevitable shadow of Miike looming over as well. Ulti- mately, like A Serbian Film, The Life and Death of a Porno Gang transcends the horror genre. (North American audiences can decide for themselves when the movie is eventually released by Synapse Films, which snapped up the North American rights earlier this year.) “I wanted to see how camp would work in the mud,” says Djordjevic. “I think it is a very
interesting combination. I am very intrigued by this meta-film approach, the combination of various, seemingly incoherent styles. It’s more inter- esting than social and political engagement, although Porno Gang has that layer also. This film is actually a story about the conflict between rural and urban Serbia, Eros and Thanatos, a film on the Balkans where death wins over Eros.”
Why did you feel that the notorious “newborn porn” scene was necessary? I consider the scene of “newborn porn” necessary and proper for several reasons. It is one of the heights of sincerity of this film. That scene, like other violent scenes in the film, is not supposed to look cool and entertaining – it should disgust you and make you scream “Enough!” to such a way of life. .... The NBP scene is a literal de- piction of the feeling we have for living in this region – the baby represents all of us whose innocence and youth were stolen by the dirty and corrupted “authorities” governing our lives, and by those I mean both Serbian and foreign authorities. The baby also represents all young artists in Serbia but also is applicable to those abroad, who are not allowed to think and express themselves freely, i.e. differently from the recognized mainstream. … Also, the NBP scene shows us who Vukmir [the shady
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