The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

As Good As It Gets

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Life and Death of a Porno Gang" is a major work full of pain and despair, about the destiny of a torn apart nation, from a specific part of the world, but whose tragic existence can be found anywhere in these times of major transition in all spheres. It has the same fetid smell of the best films of Harmony Korine, Lars von Trier, John Cameron Mitchell or Jonathan Caouette, although director Mladen Djordjevic cleverly introduced humor all over his motion picture, as in those other filmmakers' products. It is just cultural differences that detract some people from the Serbian images. In "Life and Death of a Porno Gang" it is not easy to turn the head the other way, because Djordjevic avoided giving us a hint of the "nice side of Serbia ", and that is his right, in order to build the morality tale that is the result. Here you do not find the carefree indifference of blank young girls during spring vacation, the cannibalistic crisis of the bourgeois couples or the narcissistic defense of our LGBT bodies with our LGBT backs turned on the misery of other people's lives (and bodies), very characteristic of rich societies, living far from war, bombs and the smell of a pile of dead bodies. This is a rich work that makes you reflect (well, if you care about the film, anyway, or if you can see through its strong images) about the validity of ephemeral art, about the lack of ethics in all strata, the lack of information of people living in the inner country, the devaluation and depreciation of life, the exaltation of death and its cult, and (if you are curious of what happens beyond your national borders) it also urges you to find a bit of information about Serbians, Croatians and all the struggles they have been involved in the recent past. And perhaps above anything else, it makes you think about the validity of cinema today and if we really need the products that are being made. Here, Marko, a young film graduate, wants to direct his first feature, and ends up making snuff films. Cinema has gone a long way: once it was entertainment and, more importantly perhaps, it was an ensemble of many windows to the worlds beyond ours. There were no other lookouts but movies, to go, see, be informed, learn. That mission was fulfilled but now it has to be shared, and television and internet have mostly taken that role. Now we have multiple possibilities. But usually we have to see what the media companies want us to see. So cinema still has a place to fulfill, but those works are not being made. I believe that nobody needs a very high percentage of the movies made today. We get sex, violence, death, "action", fights, and so on, to anesthetize us… But we learn very little. I know some think they learn now a lot from Tarantino and a few others, as they did from Kubrick before. But in my time there were better sources of knowledge than Kubrick, and those movies are seldom talked about... Or they are called "pretentious". And then we wake up. But please do not follow the final example of Marko. Open your mind, watch better films and not the usual dose of crap, domestic, provincial movies, dressed up in special effects and syrupy music to make you believe you are a highly sophisticated "cinéphile", when you are just an Oscar follower.

This movie preceded A Serbian Film (2010) which had a similar approach. This one, however, focuses on porn and gore in an attempt to convey its supposed socio-political message.The premise is that the Big Brother controls the Serbian society through various secret services. One of them hires the protagonists to tour the country with a porn theater. The purpose of the assignment is left unclear, but it might be a part of some political power struggle.Apart from aiming at conspiracy theories, which are a kind of national sport in Serbia, there is nothing but shock value in this movie. Nevertheless, i also understand that a lot of critics and viewers considered it carrying a higher artistic message, which i haven't noticed...

i was quite excited about watching this with a lot of reviewers saying it was better than a Serbian film which came out at the same sort of time. so i watched both in the same week and this one just doesn't cut it.i wasn't engaged by the characters, their choices seemed stupid and the bad things that happen towards the end didn't shock or ram home any sort of point that hasn't been done better elsewhere.there was just no interest in watching a gang of poor serbians wander the country in a van having sex in front of farmers.the acting is below standard, the script rambles and the last hope of sex and violence is a waste of time.watch 'a Serbian film' (uncut) instead.

An aspiring filmmaker and his bizarre crew of deviant characters with whom he works are on journey.The journey into a nihilistic flight towards liberating oblivion.Their amateurish movies involve perverse sex,rape and snuff killings."Life and Death of a Porno Gang" feels like a Serbian answer to John Waters "Pink Flamingos".It's a transgressive film with the scenes of rape,self-mutilation,bestiality,snuff murders and suicide.I watched this one after "A Serbian Movie" and I can safely say that the latter is even more disturbing.The most shocking aspect of "Life and Death of a Porno Gang" is that some characters volunteer for snuff movies due to poverty-ridden despair.Still there are some touches of humor and even jolts of warmth among the litany of misery.If you liked "A Serbian Movie" give this one a look.8 out of 10.