Clip (Maja Milos, 2012): Serbia

Reviewed By: Tyler Fourmy. Reviewed at AFI Fest 2012.

Clip is an extremely sexual tale of a troubled Serbian teenager as she interacts with parents and friends. It overviews a group of especially risque teenagers as they live their lives of parties, sex, drugs and booze. It aims to push the package while forcefully showing people what could be and probably is happening continuously around the world. This film is like a high budget pornographic film with actual acting and small glimpses of a life under the sexual aspects. It is a strong film, with some strong points, but sometimes the sex scenes undermine instead of empower the key points of the film.

It is directed by Maja Milos and the most disturbing part of the film is the main character, Isidora Simijonovic a 14 year old girl playing the over promiscuous Jasna . While watching I had no idea she was that young, watching her give blow jobs and crawl on all fours being held by a leash. I felt pretty uncomfortable as the scenes continued and was not given an ending that I could walk away any more comfortable. That being said, the movie was not bad, it was interesting, intense and compelling.

Jasna’s father has terminal cancer, her mother is having a difficult time coping and Jasna is an all around bitch to both parents. Shes basically a slutty brat, for lack of a better term, to her parents especially, but basically everyone else. but still we are left to have some sympathy and emotion for our young contender. She begins to party more and go to school less and we watch her find the boy of her dreams and fall into an extremely detrimental circle of lust and loss. her self esteem can never be quelled as she tries widely to grasp onto some shred of acceptance.

The camera is handheld throughout the film, switching between an small unprofessional camera shot entirely by the cast, to a more clean professional looking shot. this effect has an added realism, which makes the sex scenes more uncomfortable. this social commentary through out the film about teens versus the world is very prominent, in shots of broken building with excessive smoking and drinking. The film features lots of natural lighting and attempts to make the shots look as realistic as possible. although the plot is somewhat lacking, the film is well shot for realism and overall entertaining.

I still don’t really know how i feel about this film. I did enjoy it, but it was really disturbing a lot of the time as well, and not in a intriguing way. Just very straight forward sex scenes, with a sprinkle of dominance and an sad undertone. That being said, some people should see this film, just not the more conservative folk.