I'm not really sure if they were trying to be unpredictable in the first place. What's the point anymore?

Some disturbing news out of Barcelona today with word that the Sitges Film Festival - one of the oldest, largest and most respected genre film events in the world - and its director, Angel Sala, have been charged with the exhibition of child pornography in connection with a screening of A Serbian Film at the 2010 edition of the festival.

Now, don't get me wrong, A Serbian Film is shocking and extreme cinema and designed to be so. But child porn? That is absolutely ridiculous - the scene that tends to get people worked up occurring entirely offscreen with the violence implied and not actually depicted - and I can only hope that the courts recognize it as such and throw the case out.

There have been rumblings that something was coming down the line after subsequent screenings of the film were banned in Spain but this is excessive in the extreme. Sala and the festival could be facing jail time and / or a fine if convicted.

Somebody had to make this thread.

Here we have a film whose plot centres around an aging retired porn star who gets in over his head with a group of over the top pornographers who take things to the ultimate extreme.

That's really all there is to sum up the plot without getting into the gory details. As OJ said in the Recently Watched thread this is certainly not a film for everyone. In fact it's probably not a film for most tastes. It's beyond extreme and seemingly covers every taboo that hasn't really been done to death already in genre films. A Serbian Film is destined to become one of those films talked about in hushed tones years from now and sought out by the curious, much like Salo or Nekromantik were years ago (at least before you could find virtually anything via the internet). Very stong stuff indeed.

Shock value aside, the film itself is actually very well done and boasts a very dark serious tone thoughout. This is a film destined to be reviled for years to come. I think genre fans should really take the opportunity to watch this while it's still new. This is film history in the making, at least as far as obscure underground films go. You may like it,  - most will hate it - but it needs to be seen.