Abstract

Using ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ (2010) (dir. Srdjan Spasojevic) as a case study this paper will examine the idea of transgression within contemporary European horror film. Working from a position that transgression is a complex and dynamic force, it will be suggested that ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ offers a fascinating case study of ‘edge play’ within ongoing cycles of boundary construction and resistance operating on personal, critical, institutional, national and trans-national levels. What’s more it will be argued that ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ demonstrates how the desire to transgress is an inevitable impulse that prevents cultural stagnation through the continuous exceeding/reaffirming of boundaries. The paper starts its analysis of transgression by placing ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ within its historical and production contexts considering the films relationships with Serbian national cinema, American genre cinema and global film cultures. This will be followed by an examination of the function of the films narrative structure and formal stylisation upon its transgressive potential. The focus will be on how ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ simultaneously and ambiguously both ameliorates and amplifies its transgressive potential through a range of formal, thematic and narrative formations. The paper will then move on to offer an examination of the censorship of ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ in the UK by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The BBFC required that the UK distributor make 49 separate cuts totaling 4 minutes and 12 seconds to obtain an 18 certificate, making it the most cut film for 16 years. The paper ends with an examination of some of the dominant themes to emerge from the critical reception of ‘Srpski film/A Serbian Film’ in the UK focusing on the films perceived artistic merit and the professed validity of the textual and contextual justifications for the films transgressive subject matter and its treatment.