A Serbian Film (18)

Starring: Srdjan Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic

Ordeal cinema presents its latest test, and it might be the toughest yet. What annoys about Srdjan Spasojevic's tale of sadistic torture is that it's pretty well made, evoking shades of David Lynch at his darkest.

Srdjan Todorovic plays Milos, a former porn star- turned-family guy who still watches his old movies. Strapped for cash since retiring, he agrees to meet with a porn impresario (Sergej Trifunovic) offering an inconceivable fee for a mystery job. "Are you sure he's not an arms dealer?" asks Milos's wife. More like the Devil, probably, and too late does Milos realise he's made a terrible pact: waking from a nightmarish three-day black-out, soaked in blood, he tries to piece together what horrors he may have committed. For those who don't wish to know the result, look away now, and perhaps forever. Imagine being drugged and coerced into raping somebody: who in all the world would you least want that somebody to be? The director Spasojevic claims that the film is an allegory on Serbia's recent history of genocide and atrocity, though a film that was actually about that history could conjure no more elaborate fiendishness than this does.