SUBVERSIVE SERBIA!

[Ghoul]

došao je trenutak da se javnosti obznani nešto na čemu sa Mitchom Davisom radim prethodnih mesec-i-kusur dana (odnosno, jedan deo tih radova i planova):


Though Montreal's Fantasia Festival normally waits another month or two before announcing any titles this year they're jumping to it early with an announcement of their first spotlight program. And get ready because they're bringing A Serbian Film to Canada and it's bringing along some friends ... read on!

           A SERBIAN FILM to have its Canadian Premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival as part of scorching "Subversive Serbia" spotlight.

           March 9, 2010

           The Fantasia Film Festival has announced a first slice of programming for its 2010 event. SUBVERSIVE SERBIA: a spotlight on the blistering new wave of confrontational  and edgy Serbian cinema.

           At this early stage, the festival can announce only an initial trio of titles: Srdjan Spasojevic's A SERBIAN FILM (Srpski Film), which is about to have its North American premiere at SXSW, Mladen Djordjevic's  Raindance hit THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG (Zivot i smrt porno bande) and, making its long awaited Montreal debut, Uros Stojanovic's TEARS FOR SALE (carlston za ognjenku), an adored selection at  the Toronto International Film Festival,  co-written by SERBIAN FILM screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic.

           Fantasia is also working with journalist Dejan Ognjanovic in association with the Belgrade Cinematheque to curate a parallel series to be announced shortly.

           "The voices emerging from the new wave of independent Serbian cinema are some of the rawest and most daring of any we've ever encountered" said Fantasia co-director Mitch Davis. "This is smart, confrontational filmmaking with astounding elements of shock, armed with the intelligence and the urgency to back it up. In particular, SERBIAN FILM and PORNO GANG are, to my mind, the CLOCKWORK ORANGEs of our generation. They push boundaries in ways that cinema rarely has the courage to do, and they're two of the most transgressive films I've ever seen. We can't wait to see them come to life in front of an audience here. "

           SERBIAN FILM producer Nikola Pantelic issued the following statement:" To us, Canada is a very special place because it is the homeland of one of our favorite filmmakers, whose work greatly inspired us - David Cronenberg. We're honored to participate in Fantasia- a place where majority of our favorite recent films were screened. Montreal Fantasia is one of the few places left on this earth where artistic freedom and unorthodox cinema thinking still mean something. Mitch Davis is one of the rare people who has reacted on our film in exactly the right way. Fantasia has made a Mecca for gutsy and vital cinema today. For A Serbian Film, things have come full circle."

           The 2010 Fantasia Film Festival will take place in Montreal July 8 - July 27.  More information can be found at www.fantasiafestival.com.



http://twitchfilm.net/news/2010/03/fantasia-2010-announces-subversive-serbia.php

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/19408

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36324/subversive-serbia-debut-fantasia-2010

http://www.fearnet.com/news/b18414_fantasia_fest_celebrates_serbian.html

+ announcements to come on Cinematical and Fangoria.
Screen International and Variety are both considering too!

ono što mič nije reko amerima, ali mogu ja vama, jeste da radim na tome da se, paralelno sa novima (gde sam predložio i MADE IN SERBIA, ne znam što ga u ovoj najavi nije pomenuo), prikaže i mini-retrospektiva nešto starijih srpskih horora, tj.
VARIOLA VERA,
VEĆ VIĐENO,
SVETO MESTO
T.T. SINDROM

(prvobitno je u planu bio i DAVITELJ, ali se ispostavilo da naša kinoteka nema 35mm kopiju tog filma sa eng. titlovima, za razliku od gorepomenuta 4!)

[Le Samourai]

Mislim da bi i Devichanska svirka mogla da pronadje svoj fanbase u angloamerichkom svetu; oni tamo imaju tradiciju ekranizacija Poa i slichnih filmova na koje se Svirka naslanja.

[Ghoul]

in your dreams.

to nije mudar predlog, za ovaj program, jer
1) taj film ni izdaleka nije u duhu FANTASIA filmova (star je, crno-beo, spor, poetičan, dosadan, ni po čemu subverzivan...)
2) rađen je za TV, na 16mm, odstupa i formalno i tematski od ostalih
3) rađen je za augijeve štale zvane RTB/RTS, koji su toliko spora, birokratizovana i haotična institucija da bi dobiti od njih iole pristojnu kopiju (koju ionako nemaju) trajalo godinama
4) ne postoji kopija sa eng. titlovima, niti zadovoljavajućih tehničkih kvaliteta za prikazivanje na festivalu

[Son of Man]

Uh, sve bi dao da mogu da odem na taj fest da gledam reakcije publike, a i da pogledam to u bioskopu...

EDIT : Jedino TT sindrom bi izostavio sa spiska, al mozda se to nekom i svidi preko, meni jok...

[crippled_avenger]

Odlično. Svaka čast.

[Ygg]

Ja počinjem da skupljam pare za ljetovanje u Kanadi!

[crippled_avenger]

Ygg, Ameri voze za dz do Guantanama

[mac]

Predlažem "Zemlju istine, ljubavi i slobode" umesto Davitelja. Nije horor, ali jeste subverzivno.

[crippled_avenger]

Pretpostavljam da ide MILOŠ BRANKOVIĆ?

[Vampirella]

T.T. SINDROM

Ja ovo nisam gledala. Da li bih trebala? Bez nacionalnog ponosa, molim.

P.S. Ghoule, svaka cast!

[Ghoul]

ela, možeš preživeti i bez tts-a.

to je jedan solidan, ali ipak srednje-maštovit omaž slešerima - zabavan zato što je srpski, i svakako je mnogo bolji kao 'prvi srpski slešer' nego li što je, recimo, 'prvi srpski zombi film', ali ipak je to slična škola misli (potkovana žaba), samo sa zanimljivijim rezultatom.

[Ygg]

TT Sindrom je simpatičan film, mada ima mana. Meni se baš svidio. Mislim da sam ga odgledao u kinu jedno 3-4 puta (što za vrijeme redovnih projekcija, što na nekim revijama) i još čini mi se dva puta na dvd-u. I nije mi dosadio. Možda bih mogao uskoro da ga pogledam ponovo. 

[Tex Murphy]

Sve bi to bilo mnogo bolje da nije najgore glume EVER.

[Son of Man]

Sve bi to bilo mnogo bolje da nije najgore glume EVER.

taj rad, samo taj rad, i jurnjava po prostoru velicine javnog WC-a 

[marduk]

T.T. SINDROM

Ja ovo nisam gledala. Da li bih trebala? Bez nacionalnog ponosa, molim.

P.S. Ghoule, svaka cast!

Hella, ooobavezno odgledaj TE TE SINDROM!  


EDIT: čestitke guhulu za akciju promocije zerbske strave!

[Vampirella]

I sad, kome da zena vjeruje? Hm, prilicno sam sigurna da mi Marduk hoce podvaliti...

Spremna sam na kompromis: gledat cu ako ne bude bilo nista bolje za gledanje, a nekako uvijek ima.

[Kunac]

I sad, kome da zena vjeruje? Hm, prilicno sam sigurna da mi Marduk hoce podvaliti...

Spremna sam na kompromis: gledat cu ako ne bude bilo nista bolje za gledanje, a nekako uvijek ima.

Gledaj slobodno... Ali obavezno telekiniranu verziju...

[Ghoul]

ni fangorija nije mogla da ne izvesti o ovome:

http://fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=201:exclusive-photo-from-fest-bound-serbian-film&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=167

[angel011]

Svaka čast.

[acaciA]

tek sad videh ovo... zaista sjajno! 

[Ghoul]

hm, zanimljivo da je na kripletovom blogu proradila cenzura - u vesti koju su preneli fangorija, bladi dizgasting, dred central i ko sve ne, pominje se i izvesni dejan ognjanović - međutim, ideolog tzv. 'novog srpskog filma' je pomenutog srbina u tim vestima - namerno izbrisao.

to je samo dašak 'slobode' koju bismo disali kad/ako ikada kurte 'starog' srpskog filma sjašu i ustupe mesto murtama 'novog srpskog filma'.

uporedi:
http://dobanevinosti.blogspot.com/2010/03/srpski-film-u-svetu.html

sa, recimo:
http://twitchfilm.net/news/2010/03/fantasia-2010-announces-subversive-serbia.php

[Ghoul]

inače, kolike su razmere kripletove cenzure može se videti i po tome da 'dejana ognjanovića' nije cenzurisao čak ni sajt NOVI KADROVI!

da podsetimo, to je sajt posvećen vestima vezanim za domaći film, za koji nije bilo vredno pomena da je izašao filmski časopis koji je pokrenuo ko-urednik i za koji piše nekoliko novih kadrova; niti je bilo newsworthy bar u 2 reči kazati da je izašlo izdanje posvećeno niškom kritičarskom krugu (u okviru koga je i neizrecivi, neimenovani, onaj-koji-se-ne-sme-pomenuti dejan ognjanović); niti je vredno najave da se dešava autorsko veče sa đorđem kadijevićem, itd. itd.

dakle, čak i taj i takav sajt NIJE cenzurisao tu vest; ali kripl jeste.

hajl doba 'nevinosti'!
hajl novi srpski film!
HAJL!

[mac]

Dobro, Ghoule, nije srpski ćutati, ali već smo shvatili poentu, Cripple te više ne voli, ne moraš da se ponavljaš.

[Ghoul]

već smo shvatili poentu, Cripple te više ne voli

nisam baš siguran da si shvatio poentu.
jer, poenta nije 'buaaa, kripl me više ne voli, buaaa!'

poenta je: 'evo kako bi izgledao dnevnik da na vlast dođe partija novog srpskog filma'.

[mac]

I tu smo poentu shvatili.

[Ghoul]

miču su poslati filmovi V. VERA, VEĆ VIĐENO i SV. MESTO.
TT SINDROMA nigde nema- nemaju ga ni producent, ni režiser, ni kilavi distributer pa ću na kraju, izgleda, morati miču da šaljem jebano DIVX!

anyway, već je pogledo kadiju i ODUŠEVLJEN je.
kaže: 'Like Mario Bava with a bit of THE VIY and EVIL DEAD-era Sam Raimi!'

[Ygg]

TT SINDROMA nigde nema- nemaju ga ni producent, ni režiser, ni kilavi distributer pa ću na kraju, izgleda, morati miču da šaljem jebano DIVX!

Zar ne postoji barem DVD izdanje? Ja sam prije nekoliko godina uzimao film iz devedeteke i čini mi se da je to bio nekakav original. Bez ikakvih dodataka osim trejlera ali DVD a ne DivX, ako se dobro sjećam.

[Ghoul]

nije toliki problem da se izbunari primerak u nečijoj privatnoj kolekciji ili u dvd klubu - ali me nervira što ga nemaju ni producent, ni režiser, ni kilavi distributer, i što zeki kao da se fućka za sve to (pošto na moje poruke ne odgovara), tako da TTS možda na kraju i ne igra u montrealu.

[SIMERIJANAC]

Zar ne postoji nikakva šansa da se prikaže Leptirica?
Da li je problem samo sa RTSom(filmska kopija,dozvola), ili bi bilo moguće i bez njih prikazati neki kvalitetan DVD? Ne znam da li si video onaj titlovani snimak što je bio onomad da se skine na Cinemageddonu kakav je prevod i kvalitet snimka?
Bruka bre da se predstavlja srpski horor bez Leptiričice.

[crippled_avenger]

ali, ovo nije predstavljanje horora već SUBVERSIVE SERBIA-tema je mnogo šira, vidiš da će vrteti OGNJENKU koja nije horor...

[Ghoul]

Zar ne postoji nikakva šansa da se prikaže Leptirica?
Da li je problem samo sa RTSom(filmska kopija,dozvola), ili bi bilo moguće i bez njih prikazati neki kvalitetan DVD? Ne znam da li si video onaj titlovani snimak što je bio onomad da se skine na Cinemageddonu kakav je prevod i kvalitet snimka?
Bruka bre da se predstavlja srpski horor bez Leptiričice.

bruka - za rts, pre svega.

shvati:
1. na fantaziji ne puštaju filmove sa video bima: ipak, nije to FEST, nego FESTIVAL.
2. to znači, na diskove zaboravi.
3. LEPTIRICA ne postoji na filmskoj traci.
4. originalno je snimana na 16mm, ali je RTS sada čuva na nekim njihovim kaseticama i trakicama, a ko zna gde je i u kakvom stanju orig. traka. gotovo je sigurno da nije u upotrebljivom stanju as is.
5. čak i kad bi postojala 16mm verzija koja je u super stanju, kojoj ne treba restauracija (to je SF jer pričao mi je kadija kako se i gde čuvaju orig. trake nj. filmova) sumnjam da bi ovi na fantaziji imali odakle da je projektuju.
6. čak i da se sve ovo gore prevaziđe (nekako! u narednih nedelju-dve! jer nema mnogo vremena!), oni ne praktikuju korišćenje lumi-titlova (to su oni koji idu nezavisno od film, tj. projektuju se ispod platna ili u donji deo platna)
7. čak i da praktikuju, trenutno ne postoje oficijelni eng. titlovi za LEPTIRICU. čuo sam da ima neki fan-made, negde, ali do mene nije došao. sve i da dođe - opet se RTS pita, i idiotski je puštati fanovske (ko zna kakve?!) titlove uz ofic. approved RTS copy.
8. RTS da ima mozga, angažovali bi prevodioca da im uradi eng. titlove za taj film anyway, fantasia or no fantasia, jer navodno spremaju DVD tog filma, a sa tim jeftinim dodatkom (jeftinim, za njih: platiti 100a-k E da neko ljucki prevede to na eng.) taj DVD bi se prodavao širom sveta za dobre pare.

u idealnom svetu, NEKO nadležan za kulturu bi dao pare da se filmovi poput LEPTIRICE restauriraju, digitalizuju, prebace na filmsku traku, čuvaju kako treba, i distribuiraju kako treba.

u srbiji, međutim, od toga nema ništa - a ako se nešto i pokrene u tom smislu, biće presporo, nestručno i half-assed.

iz spleta gorenavedenih razloga LEPTIRICU nije moguće prikazati ove godine na Fantaziji.

za neku drugu priliku - videćemo.
još smo mladi...

[lou benny]

rispekt za celu akciju

iscimajte se za tog davitelja, nemoguće da nema toga na 35 mm jbte  

pored samog filma koji bi bilo kul da vide, onaj uvod bi taman američku publiku uveo malo u priču o fantomu...

[Ghoul2]

sa zakašnjenjem, čestitam ghoulu-(subverzivnom)-srbinu!

[vilja]

sa zakašnjenjem, čestitam ghoulu-(subverzivnom)-srbinu!

I ja!!! 

Kako mi je ovo promaklo?!!   

[Ghoul]

PORNO BANDA i SRPSKI FILM su, do sada, bili svoje bitke zasebno.

danas i sutra je prva (ne i poslednja!) prilika za udruženi, dvostruki šok za strance.

na festivalu fantastičnog filma u BRISELU publika neće znati šta će da ih snađe - prvo ih večeras (petak) molestuje PORNO BANDA, a onda ih (u subotu) dokusuruje i sa zemljom sravnjuje SRPSKI FILM.

ko preživi, pričaće... i pisaće...
držimo im palčeve.

[WARLOCK]

oba filma redom haha bice ludo,jedva cekam reakcije

[Ghoul]

iznenađen sam.
subverzivni srbi nisu ništa dobili u briselu, a bio sam spreman da se kladim da će bar NEKA nagradica da ih zakači.

[WARLOCK]

shit 

[Ygg]

Fantasia 2010 Presents SUBVERSIVE SERBIA!

            Montreal, June 29, 2010. Serbia's terrifying recent history has birthed a confrontational new generation of filmmakers who are using the medium to express their wounded psyches in ways the Western World can barely get its head around. Our spotlight, which we are calling SUBVERSIVE SERBIA showcases the key entries in this intelligently transgressive and politically-charged filmmaking scene. We're also going to showcase a string of retro Serbian genre films never before screened here, programmed in association with Dejan Ognjanovic and the Belgrade Cinematheque.

            Beyond the screenings, Mr. Ognjanovic will be presenting a multimedia presentation and panel discussion - AN INTRODUCTION TO SERBIAN HORROR CINEMA - where he will be joined by the makers of many of the films showcased in our spotlight.

            Your eyes are about to be opened. Wide.

            "The voices emerging from the new wave of independent Serbian cinema are some of the rawest and most daring of any we've ever encountered," said Fantasia co-director Mitch Davis. "This is smart, confrontational filmmaking with astounding elements of shock, armed with the intelligence and the urgency to back it up. In particular, A SERBIAN FILM and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG are, to my mind, the CLOCKWORK ORANGEs of our generation. They push boundaries in ways that cinema rarely has the courage to do."

            A SERBIAN FILM producer Nikola Pantelic issued the following statement: "To us, Canada is a very special place because it is the homeland of one of our favourite filmmakers, whose work greatly inspired us - David Cronenberg. We're honoured to participate in the Fantasia Film Festival - a place where a majority of our favourite recent films were screened. Montreal's Fantasia is one of the few places left on this earth where artistic freedom and unorthodox cinema thinking still mean something. Fantasia has made a Mecca for gutsy and vital cinema today. For A Serbian Film, things have come full circle."
            __________

            The new blood:


            THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG, Dir: Mladen Djordjevic - Montreal premiere
            Hosted by director Mladen Djordjevic

            This razor-sharp and often perversely comic metaphor about the social pathologies of Serbian life in the 1990s was a major hit at the Rotterdam Film Festival. A travelling "porno cabaret" journeys from village to village across rural Serbia, performing live sex acts in radical framings as a means of sexual confrontation, often provoking violent responses from the locals. Situations take a turn for the darker when the troupe are approached by a shady foreign war correspondent who makes them an offer they struggle against refusing--a ton of money in exchange for shooting actual murders, theatrically "performed" on willing, consensual victims who no longer care about living.


            TEARS FOR SALE Director's Cut Dir: Uros Stojanovic - International premiere
            Hosted by screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic.


            A Serbian village has been so devastated by war that virtually all the males have been killed, with only women remaining. Two girls earn their living as mourners-for-hire--they cry at other people's funerals for money. When they inadvertently cause the death of the last remaining man in the village, the other women force them to go to Belgrade and find some fresh male flesh. They embark on the journey, followed by the ghost of their grandmother. An ambitious piece of eye-candy with a budget and visuals unprecedented in Serbian films, TEARS brings to mind a somewhat darker and more erotic Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Luscious period detail and costumes are blended with elaborate visual effects to conjure a unique fantasy environment for the fairy-tale plot, which uses the country's tragic past as a background for an ambiguously dark romance. TEARS FOR SALE is characteristically Serbian in its mixture of tragedy and comedy, road movie and fantasy, death and romance, and myth and reality, and it represents a fresh vision which effectively merges the local with the universal. Also typically Serbian is the central conflict--obligation to society versus personal happiness, and the resulting clash between the individual and the communal, between selfishness and sacrifice. The film won raves everywhere from Tiff to Rotterdam in a highly reedited version in 2008, the original director's cut having never been screened to audiences outside of Serbia...until now. Fantasia will be home to the international premiere of the film's very different director's cut.


            A SERBIAN FILM Dir: Srdjan Spasojevic - Canadian premiere
            Hosted by Director Srdjan Spasojevic, screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic.  & producer Nikola Pantelic

            Milos, a retired adult film performer agrees to do one last film in order to sustain his impoverished family. But the first day of shooting is a bit strange. Then it gets weirder. When Milos decides to pull out, things go from bad to worse. And worse. Until they reach the unspeakable. A film firmly rooted in the frustration and despair of living in Serbia today, A SERBIAN FILM reinvents the horror genre to suit its own purpose, turning it into a powerful cinematic scream of anger and frustration. It offers a stylized version of what it feels like to grow up in a country humiliated, denigrated, impoverished, bombed-out, stripped of its territory, labeled genocidal and haunted by the spirits of war crimes. It is a scream against corrupt politics, both domestic and foreign; against limitations both internal and external; against being both metaphorically and literally f***ed. It is the ne plus ultra of shock, but this already-notorious content comprises only a small portion of the film. It's true power lies in its furious point-of-view, its shattered performances and it's De-Palma-esque mise-en-scene. Scripted with eloquence by Aleksandar Radivojevic...who also wrote TEARS FOR SALE!


            TECHNOTISE: EDIT & I  Dir: Aleksa Gajic

            Serbia's first animated feature film. Edit is a smart, poised and exceptionally good-looking young psychology student in Belgrade in the year 2074. In addition to her studies, she works for a major scientific research firm. After failing her grueling psych exam for the sixth time, however, she decides to lower her ethical standards and have a black-market memory-booster chip implanted in her to guarantee a passing grade next time around. The chip is successful, but seems to have some strange side effects, and Edit is soon gobbling iron-supplement pills like an addict. Something is going on inside her, and whatever this mysterious condition may be, it is of great interest to the company she works for... TECHNOTISE is a feast for fans of Euro-sci-fi comics à la Métal Hurlant. No surprise, as in addition to being a well-established illustrator at home, the film's writer/director is known across the continent for his comic books with prominent French publisher Soleil. His debut film is packed with delightfully distinctive and carefully drafted little visual details and devices.


            _______________________________________________________


            The older blood:


            VARIOLA VERA (1982) Dir: Goran Markovic

            VARIOLA VERA's title refers to the Latin name for smallpox, and it is loosely based on a real event. In 1972, in what was then Yugoslavia, an Albanian Muslim from Kosovo was infected with smallpox on his pilgrimage in the Middle East and upon his return to Serbia, caused an epidemic in the Belgrade City Hospital. In the claustrophobic environment of a quarantined hospital, a group of characters, led by Rade Serbedzija (EYES WIDE SHUT), try to survive the best way they can, and to retain their humanity in the process if at all possible. No one is safe in this bleak but also blackly humorous account of body horror infecting the body politic.


            A HOLY PLACE (1990) Dir: Djordje Kadijevic
            Hosted by producer Zoran Otasevic

            A HOLY PLACE remains a hidden gem of psycho-supernatural horror which audiences outside of Serbia have yet to discover. Since the film is not available on DVD, this is the only chance you'll ever get to see it with subtitles and on the big screen that its imagery deserves. This is the version of Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy" that foreign audiences have barely ever seen--most have probably never heard of it. Unlike the rather benign Russian fantasy VIY (1967), the Serbian version is definitively for adults. The story is still about a reluctant theology student forced to spend three nights in a row locked in a spooky church, reading the Psalms over the (un)dead girl. All the while, supernatural forces are trying to grab him from the holy circle drawn on the floor. Gogol's half-humorous story is enriched into a more complex one, whose intensity is unique among other, tamer Slavic attempts at producing fear


            T.T. SYNDROME (2002) Dir: Dejan Zecevic

            A group of young people in Belgrade are out to score some weed. They go to the Turkish baths within an ancient fortress to meet their dealer, but end up trapped there and mercilessly killed one by one by a mysterious murderer clad in black leather. It all seems to have some connection with the strange and very rare illness "T. T. Syndrome". With elements of Dario Argento and John Carpenter, T.T. was the first Serbian horror film that didn't feel obliged to justify itself with elements of more respectable genres. It does not imply a political allegory--although placing (and killing off) its youthful cast entirely in a public toilet might have been a statement about the dashed hopes of post-Milosevic Serbia, after all! But above everything else, the movie uses motifs and style of the slasher film, plain and simple, to scare its audience. It has attained cult status in Serbia.


            AN INTRODUCTION TO SERBIAN HORROR CINEMA (a special multimedia presentation and panel discussion) - July 14, 6PM, EV Building, 1515 St. Catherine W.

            Serbian contribution to the horror film universe is relatively small. And yet, what Serbian horror cinema lacks in terms of quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. It can be argued that more than a dozen of existing Serbian horror titles belong among the most original works made in this nation's cinema in the past decades, and they deserve to be wider known.
            The panel devoted to Serbian horror films will be opened by Dejan Ognjanovic, film critic and author of the book In the Hills, the Horrors: Serbian Horror Cinema. He will provide the historical context and cultural background for the emergence of fantastic and horrific elements in Serbian films, with exclusive clips from rare titles barely (or never) shown outside of Serbia, like: THE SHE-BUTTERFLY, THE DAMNED THING, STRANGLER VS STRANGLER, DÉJÀ VU aka REFLECTIONS, etc.

            He will be joined by the directors Mladen Djordjevic (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG) and Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM), screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic (A SERBIAN FILM, TEARS FOR SALE) and producers Nikola Pantelic (A SERBIAN FILM) and Zoran Otasevic (A HOLY PLACE) to discuss the currents trends, potentials and plans for the new face(s) of Serbian horror cinema.

http://twitchfilm.net/news/2010/06/fantasia-2010-presents-subversive-serbia.php

[Ygg]

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang
Screening Times
July 10th, 2010 • 9:20 pm • Hall Theater
July 12th, 2010 • 3:10 pm • J.A. De Seve Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=33


Tears For Sale (Director's Cut)
Screening Times
July 13th, 2010 • 10:00 pm • Hall Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=152


A Serbian Film
Screening Times
July 16th, 2010 • 9:10 pm • Hall Theater
July 19th, 2010 • 4:40 pm • Hall Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=148


Technotise: Edit & I
Screening Times
July 11th, 2010 • 4:25 pm • Hall Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=92


Variola Vera
Screening Times
July 17th, 2010 • 5:00 pm • J.A. De Seve Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=101


A Holy Place
Screening Times
July 13th, 2010 • 7:30 pm • J.A. De Seve Theater
July 26th, 2010 • 1:00 pm • J.A. De Seve Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=61


T. T. Syndrome
Screening Times
July 15th, 2010 • 7:45 pm • J.A. De Seve Theater
http://www.fantasiafestival.com/2010/en/films/film_detail.php?id=100

[Ygg]

AN INTRODUCTION TO SERBIAN HORROR CINEMA
(a special multimedia presentation and panel discussion)

July 14, 6PM, EV Building, 1515 St. Catherine W.


Serbian contribution to the horror film universe is relatively small. And yet, what Serbian horror cinema lacks in terms of quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. It can be argued that more than a dozen of existing Serbian horror titles belong among the most original works made in this nation's cinema in the past decades, and they deserve to be wider known.

The panel devoted to Serbian horror films will be opened by Dejan Ognjanovic, film critic and author of the book In the Hills, the Horrors: Serbian Horror Cinema. He will provide the historical context and cultural background for the emergence of fantastic and horrific elements in Serbian films, with exclusive clips from rare titles barely (or never) shown outside of Serbia, like: THE SHE-BUTTERFLY, THE DAMNED THING, STRANGLER VS STRANGLER, DÉJ? VU aka REFLECTIONS, etc.

He will be joined by the directors Mladen Djordjevic (THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG) and Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM), screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic (A SERBIAN FILM, TEARS FOR SALE) and producers Nikola Pantelic (A SERBIAN FILM) and Zoran Otasevic (A HOLY PLACE) to discuss the currents trends, potentials and plans for the new face(s) of Serbian horror cinema.

[Kunac]

Dread Central je uradio detaljan pregled filmova:::

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/38389/fantasia-2010-subversive-serbia-spotlight-new-stills-life-and-death-a-porno-gang-a-holy-p

[Kunac]

Fantasia 2010: Subversive Serbia Spotlight - New Stills: Life and Death of a Porno Gang, A Holy Place, and T.T. Syndrome

    * A Holy Place
    * Fantasia 2010
    * Life and Death of a Porno Gang
    * T.T. Syndrome

One of the cooler and sicker things to check in addition to the premiere of A Serbian Film at the Fantasia Film Festival 2010 is their Subversive Serbia Film Spotlight and we have got some stills from three of the films that will be weirding up the big screen!

A Holy Place Fantasia Description
"This is the version of Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy" that foreign audiences have barely ever seen—most have probably never heard of it. Unlike the rather benign Russian fantasy VIY (1967), the Serbian version is definitively for adults, in terms of both erotic and horrific content. The story is still about a reluctant theology student forced to spend three nights in a row locked in a spooky church, reading the Psalms over the (un)dead girl. All the while, supernatural forces are trying to grab him from the holy circle drawn on the floor. Gogol's half-humorous story is enriched into a more complex one by the new back-story for the witch-girl and her father. They provide an unparalleled excess of perversity and terror, whose intensity is unique among other, tamer Slavic attempts at producing fear.

In Kadijevic's version, the character of Catherine is the embodiment of the femme fatale. A number of flashbacks reveal the young woman as a true devourer of men and, in a rare example of an explicit lesbian scene in Serbian cinema, of women too. Catherine's back-story is learned through a gradual process, with three separate stories about her (each more horrible than the previous one), heard on three successive nights. The final "turn of the screw," completely invented by the screenwriter/director, is reminiscent of the powerful climaxes in Pupi Avati's Italian rural gothics, suggesting the corruption and perversion hidden beneath the respectable appearances. This "Serbian gothic" is psychologically motivated. For Kadijevic, a veteran of Serbian cinema, the human condition is quite sufficient as a source of horror, and the eternal struggles of Eros and Thanatos seem to be at its core. A HOLY PLACE is most reminiscent of Mario Bava's gothic films, both in terms of elaborate visuals and of a serious, dramatic treatment of the story and characters. Barely noticed at the time of its release, A HOLY PLACE remains a hidden gem of psycho-supernatural horror which audiences outside of Serbia have yet to discover. Since the film is not available on DVD, this is the only chance you'll ever get to see it with English subtitles and on the big screen that its imagery deserves."

Look for the film to be playing the festival on July 13th at 7:30PM and then again on July 26th at 1:00PM.


TT Syndrome Fantasia Description
"A group of young people in Belgrade are out to score some weed. They go to the Turkish baths within an ancient fortress to meet their dealer, but end up trapped there and mercilessly killed one by one by a mysterious murderer clad in black leather. It all seems to have some connection with the strange and very rare illness T. T. Syndrome, but will they solve the mystery before they've all gone down the drain? With T. T. SYNDROME, Director Dejan Zecevic creates an effective blend of classic slasher-movie shocks and Argento-style whodunit (note close-up fetishism for gloves, door handles and various sharp weaponry, plus the typical giallo motifs of a strong mother figure, childhood trauma and a haunting nursery rhyme). Relentless claustrophobia and tension in an inspired setting, at their most effective, resemble the highlights of early John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper films, while the vivid flashes of gore invoke the spirit of vintage Lucio Fulci.

In spite of its shoestring budget, T. T. SYNDROME can stand proudly next to most American indie efforts. Zecevic makes a most inventive use of his limited setting, the decrepit Turkish bath and public toilet. Through his directorial skill he creates a palpable menace within such a banal setting which, by the conclusion in the fort's catacombs, attains an almost mythical quality. The film's technical side is quite competent, and the same can be said for the acting ensemble, including a few veterans from VARIOLA VERA. T. T. SYNDROME became a cult film in Serbia and even managed to get into several international genre festivals. It's the first Serbian horror film that doesn't feel obliged to justify itself with elements of more respectable genres. It does not imply a political allegory—although placing (and killing off) its youthful cast entirely in a public toilet might have been a statement about the dashed hopes of post-Milosevic Serbia, after all! But above everything else, the movie uses motifs and style of the slasher film, plain and simple, to scare its audience. It is a horror fan's brainchild made first and foremost for other horror fans."

Look for the film to be playing the festival on July 15th at 7:45PM

The Life and Death of a Porno Gang Fantasia Description
"Timeline: late 1990s, Serbia. Young Marko lives for cinema and is desperate to make a feature film. Fresh ideas are in no shortage, but financing in post-Milosevic Serbia is next to impossible to secure. In desperation to shoot anything interesting, he ventures into the universe of porn, where financing is a breeze and profits are all but guaranteed. He assembles a colourful band of outcasts and proceeds to shoot porn as a vessel of rage against a culture that won't let him make the movies he wants to make. Eventually, he takes things one step further, abandoning his shoots in order to assemble a travelling "porno cabaret" which goes from village to village across rural Serbia, performing live sex acts in radical framings as a means of sexual confrontation. This leads to... a lot of trouble with the locals! But trouble is just an appetizer, and things really begin to explode when Marko and his troupe are approached by a shady foreign journalist who makes them an offer they struggle against refusing—a ton of money in exchange for shooting actual murders, theatrically "performed" on willing, consensual victims who no longer care about living.

A razor-sharp and often perversely comic metaphor about the social pathologies of Serbian life in the 1990s, PORNO GANG is, on the surface, precisely the sort of work you might expect to encounter from a filmmaker who cites modern Japanese cinema, American horror, John Waters and Paul Morrissey as his influences, fused with aesthetics of the Serbian Black Wave. Scratch a little deeper and you'll find a fiercely intelligent, wholly unique blast of ultra-explicit assault art. This is a film bursting with outrageous characters and shocking situations, yet there's an incredible sense of loss and anger attached to it, oozing forth from the deepest of wounds. A different kind of road movie, it's the place where MAN BITES DOG crosses paths with CAFÉ FLESH, EASY RIDER and PINK FLAMINGOS on a candy-coloured suicide bus to hell. With this film, writer/director Mladen Djordjevic joins ranks with Gaspar Noé, Sion Sono, Lars Von Trier and Takashi Miike as one of the most daring and provocative filmmakers working today. PORNO GANG is a perfect introduction to the scorching new wave of transgressive Serbian cinema, one that will make you laugh, cringe and cry tears of blood. Absolutely for adults only!"

Look for the film to be playing the festival on July 10th at 9:20PM and then again on July 12th at 3:10PM.

[Ygg]

Onaj čije ime se ne pominje na svom blogu kaže da je Banda razvalila na Fantaziji!

- PORN GANG presented successfully in front of an almost full theater at FANTASIA, Montreal. Great responses from the audience. znaci, bilo je oko 600 ljudi u sali, izvrsno su primili film kao i q&a koji sam nakon filma radio s mladenom, postavljali pitanja, interesovali se i bili apsolutno neverovatno radoznali i dobronamerni. film je izazvao sjajan odjek, neki su posle prilazili mladenu da cestitaju itsl. net je pun sjajnih rivjua BANDE, koga zanima nek potrazi.

A na dredcentralu kažu:

...we also have to recommend a second non-horror related entry, though this one is certainly a kissing cousin to our beloved genre, and frankly, who but horror fans are going to give The Life and Death of a Porno Gang a home? The movie tells the story of Marko an aspiring Serbian filmmaker who, desperate for work in the film business starts shooting porno. His lofty ambitions lead him to create a wanky (literally!) conceptual sex movie (which reminded me of the 2006 high art meets skin flick Destricted). His producer is predictably unhappy, and demands repayment of the movie's financing. This leads Marko to flee Belgrade by assembling a hodge-podge of talent for a traveling porno-cabaret act, consisting of a couple of prototypical gay guys, a fat chick, a couple of junkies, a transvestite, and a his porno-hot girlfriend. In this stereotypical depiction the film reveals a somewhat more mainstream sensibility than is it's aim, but what it lacks for in character depth and plot originality, it more than makes up for with it's gruelingly nihilistic mood. The first half of The Life and Death of a Porno Gang tries to illicit a spirit of youthful fun and rebelliousness as the troupe travels the countryside partying and screwing and doing drugs. This is meant to contrast against the latter half of the film that chronicles the gang's downward spiral into addiction, disease, and snuff filmmaking. The message of the film seems clear: your career choices in a post-Milosevic Serbia run the gamut from porn to murder, neither of which pay well, and your only escape is drug addiction and death. It's a grim message wrapped up in a candy coated party bus replete with pink neon lighting, and the kind of movie John Waters would have made had he been a native of Belgrade rather than Baltimore.

[SIMERIJANAC]

Da li bi neko od sagitaša bio ljubazan da ovde prekopira recenziju Svetog mesta sa Twitcha pošto ja sa svog kompa ne mogu nikako da uđem na taj sajt.

http://twitchfilm.net/reviews/2010/07/fantasia-2010-a-holy-place-review.php

Gul na blogu izveštava da su Kanađani otkinuli na film a da je posebno bilo zanimljivo na Q&A posle Čarlstona gde je jedna kanadska Srbkinja napala Radivojevića(valjda samo verbalno?) jer izgleda nije prepoznala suptilnost u njegovoj kritici srpskog društva. 
Ladno je došla i na Gulovo predavanje o srpskom hororu a biće veselo ako se pojavi i posle Srpskog filma.Jebi ga,Acu niko nije obavestio da nam je tamo posle Australije najekstremnija dijaspora.Jedva čekam to da vidim.

PROMOCIJA SUBVERZIVNE SRBIJE SE NASTAVLJA: SVETO MESTO (u savrseno ocuvanoj kopiji sa eng. titlovima, mnogo boljoj od srpske iz kinoteke!) igralo pred prepunom dvoranom (rasprodato - za VIP goste morali da ubace stolice na rasklapanje), publika odusevljena, grdna pitanja posle filma itd. film se ovde prikazuje jos dvaput.

- ekipa SRPSKOG FILMA stigla u montreal. prikazane SUZE NA PRODAJU pred prepunom dvoranom, odlican response publike. poduzi Q & A koji sam vodio sa acom bio je ocekivano sochan i 'antisrpski' (za one koji ga poznaju) - toliko, da je jedna srpkinja iz publike napravila mini-skandal svojim gnushanjem nad acinim komentarima o stanju/sranju u srbiji. cak i ja sam morao da korigujem neke njegove preterane tvrdnje na pozornici, sto je sve bilo prilicno bizarno i zabavno i neuobicajeno. sve je usnimio moj diktafon...

- odrzan panel UVOD U SRPSKI FILM pred 40-ak posetilaca, sa video klipovima (LEPTIRICA, DAVITELJ, VEC VIDJENO, SHEJTAN), fotkama iz ostalih filmova + iz rajca. u drugom delu pridruzili mi se mladen i srbofili. bilo je super. pojavila se i ona srbkinja od prosle veceri da opet spopada acu. sve usnimljeno kamerom, bice onlajn uskoro.

[Meho Krljic]

Evo ga

Fantasia 2010: A HOLY PLACE Review

by Matthew Leon Grinshpun, July 14, 2010 4:15 PM

Continental Europe & Russia, Fantastic Fest 2010, Horror

We cinephiles suffer from an irrational obsession. It's an insatiable lust for obscurity and esotericism, the nagging need to locate that one ultra-rare picture by that Korean director from the seventies that everyone's forgotten, the uncontrollable urge to see the last surviving 16mm print of Godard's discursus on Maoist colonoscopy. When, just over a month ago, the New Zealand Film Archive discovered a treasure trove of long-lost silent films, including a John Ford production and a Clara Bow period picture, we experienced a collective petite mort. And when A Holy Place showed up at the Fantasia Festival - "the version of Nikolai Gogol's short story Viy that foreign audiences have barely ever seen," says the festival guide - we all came out to have a look.


Shot in the Yugoslav countryside in 1990 as the shit dangled menacingly above the fan, A Holy Place's negatives ended up shanghaied in a Croatian production facility, a hostage to the ethno-nationalist insanities of its time. The slightly faded 35mm copy we saw at Fantasia, in the film's first public foreign screening, was a one-off print intended for potential distributors. It was never meant for mass consumption, and it showed. The print was dark, lacked colour collection, and featured subtitles that wriggled about the screen in the moribund scrawl of a harlequin fetus, bearing bizarre and, on occasion, serendipitously comical spelling mistakes ("you are mush too old for me," utters our hero to the grizzled and rather amorphous geriatric pining for his pud).

Given a properly titrated dose of camp, such lack of professionalism is not only excusable, but endearing. A Holy Place, with its synthesizer soundtrack coming a decade too late, punctuating moments of terror with a flatulent waveform and a preciously digitized flute, would seem to be a plausible candidate for kitsch immortality, but it just doesn't measure up. It begins as a classic, though transplanted, retelling of Gogol's story, following three theology students as they trek through the countryside. When they spend the night at the house of an aged peasant woman, she attempts to seduce one of them, only to be beaten and left for dead. Soon enough she has her vengeance, transforming into a voluptuous young witch who haunts our prospective priest, forced against his will to pray over her spontaneously reanimating corpse for three tortured days.

And tortured they are. A Holy Place is practically defined by its banality. The budget here is obviously Balkan in scale, but that doesn't mean we should give director Djordje Kadijevic a pass for a lethargic camera that meanders about his characters in near-permanent medium-long shots. There's just very little going on here. The few moments of levity - the priest's forest romp with his elderly seductress is worth a laugh or two - are largely offset by the leaden weight of the film's essential dullness. Even Kadijevic's main deviation from Gogol's original plot, a psychological interrogation of the origins of the witch's evil powers, is largely unmotivated and unbelievable. His characters, especially the women, who serve mostly as emasculating foils, are afforded no psychological credibility. They just don't talk, or act, enough for us to care.


Those of us who went to see the film as part of Fantasia's "Subversive Serbia" series were animated by the promise of finding the diamond in the rough, that rare and precious film that, by the accidents of history, has gone unremarked, waiting for our fortuitous discovery. At times, this passion pays off: Witness the recent wave of rediscovery of Japanese Art Theatre Guild pictures from the 1960s. But more often than not, those films that have fallen from grace, or never attained it in the first place, are shunned with good reason. The false revelation of A Holy Place is a case in point, a film so utterly unremarkable that, as I type these words, it strikes me as paradoxical that I'm remarking it.

[SIMERIJANAC]

Fala,Urke.

[Meho Krljic]

Sve za Srbiju, Srbiju ni za šta.

[crippled_avenger]

Pa dobro, Kadijević je ovo i profilisao kao delo lokalnog dometa. Teško je naći napolju nekoga sa čijom duševnom bolešću ovaj film dobro korespondira.

[SIMERIJANAC]

Metju lupeta za sve pare.
Evo kako stranac od ukusa vrednuje Kadijin crni biser na način koji zaslužuje.

A Holy Place (1990)
________________________________________
Caught this one at Fantasia 2010, at what was claimed to be the first screening of the film outside Serbia. It is a very loose adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's 1835 short story, 'Viy'.

It follows the story of a student priest, probably in the late 1800s, who must spend 3 nights locked in a church praying over the body of a young woman who was supposedly a witch. Turns she is maybe not as dead as she looks and ghosly manifestations start as soon as he is locked in there. As the story progresses, you learn more and more about the witch's past and the story of the people surrounding her. I won't spoil some of the things she did of her living, but let's say that the men who were attracted to her got a severe genital punishment.

This is a gothic horror film, highly reminescent of Mario Bava's period pieces (Kill Baby Kill, Black Sunday). The movie oozes a dark atmosphere throughout.

The young witch, played by Branka Pujic, was very attractive and her sensuality was beautifully used in the film. There was a nude/lesbian seduction scene that succeeded beautifully at being neither exploitative or pornographic, but simply artfull. A rare thing in horror films.

The print we saw was originally intended to be screened to foreing distributors and the subtitling had obviously been rushed. It contained countless speling and sintax mistakes, not to mention the occasional misplacements (up to 30 seconds before or after the characters actually speak). It caused some distraction, but did not break the experience.

You do not watch this movie for the scares, though there are some creepy moments. It is really all about the atmosphere.

Definitely a recommended watch for gothic horror fans.

Sadly unavailable here on DVD for the foreseable future. Though it was mentioned at the screening that the DVD is available in Serbia.

Count Von Gangrene

Jebem li ga,ja ne vidim zašto ova priča ne bi mogla da se dešava bilo gde u svetu,šta je tu toliko lokalno sem salaša i more zbog čega Kanađanin ili Španac ne bi mogao da shvati/doživi ovaj film kao i mi ili Rusi.
Pa bar motiv incesta ne treba da bude iznenađenje onima koji su ga filmski etablirali a bogami i legalizovali.   
Koliko se sećam,Kadija je svojevremeno pričao da je film imao dosta uspeha u USA,valjda po festivalima jer ne znam dal je išao u bios.distribuciju