I really didn't know anything, when we met with Jinga, they were like you really don't want to see that and we really thought it was part of the sales pitch at first. So you weren't aware of the reputation the film had before Cannes? I personally have never had a stronger reaction watching a movie than I did watching A Serbian Film. Whether it was a good reaction or not, I was totally disgusted, but it was a reaction nonetheless. Pushing boundaries is one thing and some say its being extreme for extreme sake but I had never watched a movie that gave me that much of a reaction. So they had to spend the whole day in the hospital, get stitches, the whole nine yards.īesides just being so out there, I had never seen anything like it. Well, they didn't break their nose but that was someone who works for our company. One of our associates got so freaked out, and if you google the A Serbian Film screening at Cannes you will see someone fainted halfway through the door and broke their nose. So after hearing about it, we met with their reps over at Jinga and we went to the screening of the film and it turned out to be a pretty crazy experience. We were there looking for acquisitions for our domestic distribution and digital system. We were at the Cannes film festival last year and we had heard about it through the grapevine. So how did Invincible Pictures first find out about A Serbian Film and then go about licensing it?

The conversation turned into an interesting look at licensing a film such as A Serbian Film and the decisions they have to make to release one of the most controversial films of all time both ethically and artistically. I spoke with him right around the time the Spanish controversy around the film - Sitges Film Festival director Angel Sala was hit with criminal charges for screening the film - had just hit and was all over the internet. I also took some time out beforehand to chat with Thomas Ashley one of the folks who works at US distributor Invincible Pictures. So living in Philadelphia and being a fan of transgressive cinema, I had to check it out, this being my second time seeing the film theatrically. A few weeks ago there was a free screening of A Serbian Film in Philadelphia at the Prince Theater of the uncut festival print of the film being held by Invincible Pictures who recently licensed the film.

A serbian film 2011