Coito ergo sum: Serbian sadism and global capitalism in A Serbian Film

Abstract

In this piece, I propose to explore the meaning of the recent controversial Serbian horror film A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, 2010), which depicts the horror of sadistic sexual violence on a hardcore porn/snuff shoot in the former Yugoslav Republic of Serbia. In the first section of the article, I seek to explore the basic historical context, which must frame any attempt to understand the film. In other words, it is impossible to read the film without possessing an understanding of the Yugoslav or Serbian context through which it finds its significance. In the second section of the article, I deepen this analysis through a discussion of the politics of what we might call Serbian sadism, before complicating this is the third section of the piece by suggesting that it is possible to see the idea of the Serbian monster as a western construct set up to hide the truth of the monstrosity of global capitalist culture. Finally, I conclude in the view that A Serbian Film is a representation of Serbia’s past, neo-liberal capitalism’s present, and their potential future together in a world where ‘fucking’ the other is perfectly normal and indeed the best way to ensure competitive advantage. Herein resides the meaning of the article’s title – coito ergo sum, ‘I fuck therefore, I am’.