A Serbian Film introduces us to Milos (Srdan Todorovic), a family man who lives in a nice house with his wife, Marija (Jelena Gavrilovic) and their son, Petar. Milos was once the most popular porn star in Serbia (He apparently went by the name "Milos the Filthy Stud"), but those days are behind him. Unfortunately, the money which he was able to save from his time in front of the camera is dwindling. Through one of his old contacts, he is approached by a man named Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic) about a new project. Milos is offered a great deal of money to appear in a movie which Vukmir promises will be art. Milos brother, Markos (Slobodan Bestic), who is a cop, is at the first meeting with Milos, but seems to have no opinion on the matter. Marija is unsure, but knows that the money is good, so Milos accepts the job. He is blindfolded and driven to a location who he is filmed being part of seemingly random events which lead to sex. At first, Milos is simply bemused by this. But, then the things being filmed begin to become more bizarre and dangerous. When Milos tries to back out, he learns just what kind of people he is dealing with.

This may sound like an obvious statement, but A Serbian Film is a weird movie. It is basically two movies in one, and these two movies compete to the detriment of the entire project. If you've even heard of A Serbian Film, then you've no doubt read about some of the atrocities portrayed in the movie, and they are certainly present. (Sort of. More on that in a moment.) The movie doesn't shy away from graphic sex or violence and this movie certainly isn't for the squeamish. The project being produced by Vukmir goes far beyond porn or a snuff movie and we witness (most) every event in full color. The problem here is that the movie revels in these scenes, to the point that any forward momentum made by the movie is stymied as it depicts the violence and gore. The movie wants to condemn Vukmir for making this kind of movie, yet it never misses a chance to display blood or body parts. (Earlier, I mentioned that the atrocities are "sort of" present here. The movie offered on this Blu-ray Disc is labeled as "Unrated" and runs 103 minutes. That's at least 1 minute less than the director's cut which has played at some festivals. The film's most notorious scene, which is mentioned in any write-up on the movie, has apparently been edited, so what's is occurring is only implied, as opposed to being shown.)

I'm all for filmmakers pushing the envelope, but the intense focus on the taboo actually hurts A Serbian Film. Going into the movie, I expected a gritty, low-budget, shall we say "trashy" movie. So, I was very surprised by how slick and professional this movie is. If you take away the sex and violence, you are left with a movie with an intriguing story of a man who is trying to escape from his past. Milos relationship with his family, including his brother, is very important and proves to be the lynchpin of the story. The story takes some interesting twists towards the end and they would actually be more effective if we hadn't been pummeled mercilessly by the gruesome imagery. I actually liked the first half of the movie, but once Milos snaps and a threat which is very popular amongst drill sergeants in the movies comes true, the movie loses any credibility.

In interviews, Director Srdjan Spasojevic has stated that A Serbian Film is a political statement about life in Serbia and his feelings about the state of the country. I honestly don't know enough about Serbia to comment on life there, but I can say that the events in this movie never felt like political statements. Spaojevic may have been saying something about how participants in the Serbian porn industry are treated, but it didn't go any deeper than that. What I did see was a filmmaker whose good idea fell victim to his obvious feeling that he could portray anything which he wanted to on-screen. The result is a movie which will repulse most viewers and anger those who wanted to see a good plot handled with more grace.

A Serbian Film is like the version of Boogie Nights that they show in hell on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Invincible Pictures. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 26 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. Again, I'd expected a bad looking movie, but A Serbian Film has the appearance of any Western film. The picture is crisp and shows a nice level of detail, as we can make out textures on objects. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The Disc contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 2-channel track which runs at 48 kHz and runs at an average of 26 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Someone actually put a lot of work into this track, as we get an abundance of stereo effects and the track takes advantage of any scene where sound is coming from off-screen or moving from side-to-side. The English subtitles are easy to read.

The A Serbian Film Blu-ray Disc contains no extra features.