A Serbian Film 2010

Miloš is a semi-retired Serbian porn star who, despite a loving home with his wife, Marija, and their young son, Petar, battles financial strain and a growing resentment from his brother, Marko, a corrupt police officer who envies Miloš’s family life. While Miloš dreams of one last, hefty payday to secure his family’s future and finally leave pornography behind, a former co-star, Lejla, Lejla, reappears with a tempting offer to shoot an “art film” under the wing of Vukmir, a well-connected and wealthy pornographer who promises a massive sum if Miloš agrees to participate—and to stay in the dark about the plot until filming begins.

As Miloš trains to reclaim his physique for the role, the tension at home simmers. Marko visits the house, talking with Marija in the kitchen while Petar enjoys his ice cream, hinting at his own hunger for something more—an underhanded predilection that foreshadows the abuse that will unfold. At Vukmir’s compound, Miloš is ushered past an older bald-headed man and two imposing guards, a sign of the grim world he’s stepping into. The next morning, he’s driven to an orphanage where a driver, Raa, fits him with an earpiece and supplies a voice-guided route into the unknown. A camera crew follows, placing him into increasingly unsettling sexual scenarios to test his reactions; the atmosphere tightens as Miloš moves from one compromised moment to the next.

During a tense call to Marko, Miloš probes police files on Vukmir, hinting at a past that isn’t purely professional. The conversation is interrupted by a disturbing visual: Miloš is being watched as he watches his own home videos, while a dark-room scene unfolds with a girl applying makeup and another girl eating an ice lolly on two separate televisions. The stakes escalate when Miloš is asked to have sex with a physically abused woman while a young girl dressed like Alice from Alice in Wonderland observes, and Miloš, angered and distressed, fears he is being driven past the edge. He resists briefly, but the script—and the threats surrounding him—push him to continue.

Vukmir later reveals more of his unsettling projects: another film in which Raa helps a woman give birth to a baby girl, only for the newborn to be subjected to rape, a showcase of the depths to which Vukmir will push boundaries. After a furious confrontation, Miloš flees and, at a road junction, is approached by the doctor who had been part of the manipulation. He awakens three days later, bloodied and with no memory of the intervening days. The tapes reveal a horrific sequence: Miloš was dosed to sustain a state of relentless arousal and obedience, and under Vukmir’s direction, he brutalizes a nude woman tied to a bed, a cry of justification from Vukmir muttering that the woman “deserves it.” The scene escalates to a murder, with a machete ending the life of the victim as Miloš continues the act.

The next tape shows Miloš naked and chained to a bed, two men entering with a camera one taking over the scene. The most chilling tape depicts Lejla, chained and hung in the center of a room, her teeth removed, as a masked man forces his erect member down her throat and suffocates her. The grim truth begins to unfold as Miloš pieces together the three days: a room, a ritual, and a chain of brutal acts carried out at the behest of Vukmir and with Marko pulling the strings behind the scenes. In a climactic confrontation, Miloš discovers the masked participant is Marko, who is raping Marija while a drugged Petar bleeds nearby. A violent struggle erupts: Marija regroups, bludgeons Marko to death with a sculpture, and Miloš smashes Vukmir’s head against the concrete floor before taking out most of his guards. As Vukmir dies, he murmurs, “that’s cinema.”

The chaos continues when Miloš realizes that Raa is missing an eye, and the gun in Miloš’s hand is empty. In a final, brutal act, Miloš uses his own arousal-fueled force to kill Raa by driving his erection into the eye socket, ending the threat. He then drags his wife and son home, locking them in the basement before collapsing. With the memories flooding back, Miloš contemplates suicide, but Marija refuses to let them abandon their family. Instead, the couple resolves to end their lives together, a grim mutual decision that would bring an end to their story in one final, devastating act. The family lies together in their bed, and Miloš ends the nightmare with a single shot that claims all three of them.

Sometime later, a new director arrives—again the bald-headed man from earlier—accompanied by another porn star and a crew. In a chilling postscript, the director instructs one of the actors to “start with the little one,” a stark reminder that the machine behind the film continues to churn, preying on innocence and feeding on fear.