Karmadona, written and directed by Aleksandar Radivojević, is imperfect, but authorially consistent. It's a film that not everyone will want to see – but those who go along with it will get an intense, disturbing and occasionally fascinating experience.
Karmadona is a film advertised under the slogan "Not for everyone" - which is an honest and disarmingly honest catchphrase. A film like this requires a pronounced preference for provocative, raw and often uncomfortable horror content and as such consciously targets a niche that is many times smaller than that occupied by domestic mainstream hits such as Wedding or Sports-minded. In this sense, its narrow niche becomes an advantage - in an international context, where there is a hunger for more extreme genre expression, this kind of film has a real chance to be noticed, perhaps even more so than on the domestic field.
After the world premiere in Toronto, as part of the "Midnight Madness" selection, Karmadona started a notable festival life. Shown throughout Europe, America, Australia and Africa, it caused mixed but strong reactions - from delight to discomfort, which is the highest compliment for a film of this format. Awards for film, screenplay and photography at several festivals further confirmed that it is a work that communicates with the audience beyond the local context. The domestic premiere at the Sava Center, as part of "The Longest Night of Film", took place with stormy reactions from the audience, which has continued even now, in cinema distribution.
At the heart of the story Karmadone there is Jelena (played with great dedication by Jelena Đokić), a pregnant woman whose everyday life is destroyed by a single phone call. The voice from the other side (Sergej Trifunović) issues an impossible ultimatum: obedience or the death of the unborn child. What starts as a morbid joke turns into a nightmare that seems to have no end. The border between the real and the supernatural is erased, and Jelena becomes a participant in a dark game whose rules she does not understand at first. The main actress carries the film with a confident, layered acting, and kudos to her willingness to take risks, while Trifunović's voice brings an extra dose of creepiness and control.
Basically Karmadone there is provocation - as expected, considering that Aleksandar Radivojević, screenwriter, stands behind it Serbian film. Although more formally restrained than Spasojević's debut, Karmadona it retains the same nerve: violence, blood and death are not decor, but the basis of expression. The film does not soften its own edges, but further sharpens them, creating an atmosphere of constant discomfort. But this is not just another horror.
Radivojević uses the postulates of the genre as a tool for dissecting society: u Karmadon attacks corruption, media manipulation, aggressive nationalism and trivialized everyday violence without reservation. At the beginning of the film, the main character walks past the premises of the Serbian Radical Party and the huge photo of Seselj on the glass (not by chance), which outlines the context that reminds us where we live. There are more similar "reminders" and they are rarely subtle - but all of them are effective. The characters are often reduced to symptoms of the system, sometimes caricatured, though always recognizable. That way Karmadona it functions as a grotesque mirror of reality: distorted but disturbingly close.
The two-hour film lasts about twenty minutes longer than perhaps it should - a more vigorous editing would have benefited it - but this length also reflects its authorial immoderation. Milica Stefanović, Miloš Timotijević, Petar Strugar, Mima Karadžić and Miloš Lolić stand out in the supporting roles, all with a clear sense of the tone of the film. Particularly interesting is the abundant presence of black humor, which softens the brutality and gives the film a certain kind of perverted catharsis - unlike Serbian film, here in the end, not only bitterness remains, but we also get a grain of - albeit very twisted - hope.
Karmadona is imperfect, but authorially consistent. It's a film that not everyone will want to see – but those who go along with it will get an intense, disturbing and occasionally fascinating experience. In the age of calculating films, Radivojević offers something that is very rare: a work that takes risks and does not "play" it safe. And precisely in this risk lies his greatest courage and greatest value.
In Belgrade, someone wrote graffiti on the window of the Salon of the City Museum, where the exhibition of the October Salon is held. The perpetrator should have been captured by security cameras
80 films are coming to the 32nd Original Film Festival, many of them with awards from the Cannes festival. It is organized by a citizens' association, without a dinar of state money
Tomorrow "Zvezdara Theater" will celebrate the 400th performance of "The Book of Milutin" by Nenad Jezdić's monodrama. Plays that have been in the repertoire for more than a decade are currently being played in Belgrade. The musical "Some like it hot", even - three
More than 400 artists and cultural workers signed the request of the Initiative for Free Culture, which calls for the dismissal of all the leaders of cultural institutions in Pancevo.
After the resignation of Dragana Milošević, the acting manager of the SNP, Željko Andrić was appointed the director of the Opera, even though the employees are demanding a change in the entire administration.
At the moment when the institutions of the Republic are destroyed, when Vučić's octopus is still alive, when people are disgusted by the injustice and the stench left behind by the Essenes regime, we have, as Machiavelli said, only civic virtue as the fuel with which we can return to the beginning
The four independent members of REM are an example of perseverance and civic responsibility. Rodoljub Šabić even, upon leaving the premises of REM, after the sentencing of the Informer, experienced that the Essenes insulted him, hit him with their hands and feet. But that too will soon be over
Vučić pardoned the batterers and Dijana Hrkalović. The election winners should abolish the sultan's power that allows one man to run afoul of the entire judicial system
Time explores: The construction of the St. Sava Temple
Did the money paid by the Government to SPC end up in Moscow through Alta Bank? subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
