Tweet
Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: July 31, 2012.
Director: Mladen Djordevic
Cast: Mihajlo Jovanovic, Ana Acimovic
Year: 2009
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Written and directed by Mladen Djordevic, 2009's The Life And Death Of A Porno Gang follows the misadventures of a film school graduate named Marko (Mihajlo Jovanovic) who can't raise the money to make the feature he wants to make. Instead, he decides to concentrate on a documentary about his attempts to make a feature but soon finds he's broke. When he meets a man named Cane (Srdjan Miletic) who offers him a job shooting porno movies, Marko can't say no to the money and soon winds up a pornographer by trade.
Eventually, Marko gets the idea to combine his artistic drive and his experience as a smut peddler by creating a hardcore cabaret show. He wrangles up a few of the actors and actresses that he's worked with - Dragan (Bojan Zogovic), Sofija (Natasa Miljus - who also pops up in A Serbian Film), an AIDS infected gay couple named Johnny (Radivoj Knezevic) and Maks (Srdjan Jovanovic ), married addicts Darinka (Mariana Arandjelovic) and Rade (Aleksandar Gligoric), and Una (Ana Acimovic), who he soon falls in love with - among others and they launch full on live sex show mixed with political satire and a whole lot of art for art's sake. Word gets back to Cane that some of his money has been used to do this, and before you know it Marko and his troupe are on the run in a rundown bus covered in explicit graffiti style paintings. They take their show on the road and meet up with a transvestite named Cece (Ivan Djordjevic) who joins their group, but soon find they're quickly running out of money. Around this time a German photographer who has made extra money selling films of war time atrocities meets Marko and offers he and his crew a job filming and executing people who want to die. Conflicted, but with little other option, Marko accepts and soon the 'porno gang' find themselves making snuff films…
Set in the nineties just after the atrocities committed at Kosovo, The Life And Death Of A Porno Gang has a lot more to it than just some explicit gore, hardcore sex, bestiality and graphic rape. Yes, all of this plays a part in the film's makeup but behind all of the over the top aspects of the production there's a clever story about one man's attempts to settle the battle between his artistic and financial needs and about a group's efforts to do things their own way without need for social acceptance. Obviously inspired by the country's history of violence, the film ties in the snuff film angle well, making some interesting parallels between sex and death and leaving little to the imagination, but also makes some political points as well. Case in point, a scene involving a former Serbian sniper with a terminal illness volunteers for one of their projects so that he can make a much needed confession on camera while leaving his wife and children with a little bit of the financial stability they never had while he was around. The effects of the war are everywhere in this film, and despite a few moments of effective and welcome humor, the subject matter is quite grim.
Performance wise, we're in very good shape here. The cast all take on the more explicit aspects of the production but the standout performance here comes from Mihajlo Jovanovic who offers up the perfect mix of sleazy pornographer dirtball guy and well meaning artist. His character considers himself above shooting sex films for a living, and not content to work for a pornographer for too long, it's his drive that pushes the group further and further to the outside of society. Jovanovic is perfect in the lead, and his relationship with the beautiful Ana Acimovic is both believable and poignant. It's fascinating to watch the two of them deal with the mess that they've created for themselves and for the others and to ultimately search out the only form of redemption that they possibly can.
The film's style is a bit rough around the edges, but you get the impression that it should be this way. If it were any more slick of a production it would lose some of its gritty effectiveness and be a lesser film for it. The content will no doubt put some off but for those who appreciate the more extreme efforts of filmmakers like Gasper Noe and Lars Von Trier, filmmakers who use shock value to provoke thought, The Life And Death Of A Porno Gang is pretty essential viewing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Life And Death Of A Porno Gang arrives on Blu-ray from Synapse in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1. The film was shot on 16mm and on HD video and transferred to Blu-ray from there - it doesn't look amazing but it's hard to imagine given the source material it's really ever going to look any better. There are spots where HD clarity shines through in certain details but overall this isn't reference quality stuff, though it's certainly perfectly watchable. When you go into this one, expect it to look a bit rough, it's obviously not meant to look slick and polished, the seediness of the presentation actually manages to work in its favor. As far as the authoring goes, there are no issues with compression artifacts of note nor is there any evidence of any digital tinkering or scrubbing to complain about. Colors are handled well and all in all, the movie looks just fine for what it is.
The only audio option for the feature is a Serbian language DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track with optional subtitles offered up in English only. The audio is fine here, really. The dialogue is clean and clear and the levels are properly balanced. The score that is used throughout the movie sounds good as do the effects. There aren't any problems with hiss or distortion and this would presumably be a pretty accurate representation of what the filmmakers wanted the movie to sound like.
The main extra is a feature length documentary entitled Made In Serbia, a one hundred and one minute long behind the scenes look at the Serbian pornography industry directed by Mladen Djordevic. It's a pretty telling piece, and hardly feel good material and it's easy to see how working on this project gave him the view that comes through in the feature attraction. Those used to the supposed glitz and glamour of the California porn industry will more than likely be quite taken aback by what they see here, but that doesn't make the documentary any less fascinating. This is one that anybody with an interest in the material will definitely want to check out. It's rough in appearance and was shot on standard definition video and seemingly not under the best of circumstances, but put your videophilic expectations aside - this is pretty fascinating stuff.
Also worth checking out is a lengthy Behind The Scenes Featurette that shows the cast and crew having an unusual amount of fun on the set. We see different actors getting into character and get to hear their thoughts on the characters that they play and on the director that they're working with. A lot of this is played for laughs so don't expect any serious analysis on the film here, but it's interesting enough in its own right.
Rounding out the extras on the disc are a few deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer. The disc includes animated menus and chapter stops and also features reversible cover art with some explicit imagery on the flip side.
The Final Word:
While not movie for the faint of heart or the easily offended, The Life And Death Of A Porno Gang is just as shocking as you've probably heard but underneath the exploitative dollops of sex and violence is a well written and character drive story performed by a talented cast. Synapse's Blu-ray looks and sounds about as good as it probably should and contains some pretty decent supplements too - it's hard to give this a blanket recommendation based on the fact that there are going to be plenty of people out there who won't have the stomach for the material but if you dig the more adventurous side of filmmaking, be certain to give this one a look.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
