Many in the horror community know Aleksandar Radivojevic due to his connection with the controversial exploitation piece of cinema, A Serbian Film. He was co-writer of that film, and with Karmadonna, he made his directorial debut. This film is quite a different beast from A Serbian Film, landing the viewer in the land of strange and surreal, but with a heavy dose of violence and blood to complement this vision. It doesn’t always work, and sometimes veers off into areas that had me scratching my head, but Radivojevic created something that, at the very least, will have more than a few people talking about what they just saw.
We meet Yelena (Jelena Djokic), happy, wistful, and quite pregnant. Her piece of mind doesn’t last, though, as she gets a phone call from a voice that claims to be a God of some sort, and asks Yelena to complete some tasks for him, or the unborn child will die. He makes a point to prove his power, and in a flash, the park Yelena is in is bathed in violence and death. Just like that, she is ready to do his bidding.
People must die; she will kill them all, then she and the child will be free. This sets off an adventure that goes all over the place, writing, visually, story, and is as zany as you might imagine.
The question of what a person is capable of when pushed to extreme limits is explored here, but it goes beyond that simple question. Director Radivojevic inserts Yelena into such truly strange environments, making the big scene in the final act inside the sadistic sanatorium seem almost sane.
As Yelena continues on her quest, she encounters some bizarre individuals, and the director attempts to make these people even stranger with unusual lighting and dialogue, creating a strange, surreal atmosphere. I have to give him credit; Radivojevic doesn’t go the easy route and simply copy A Serbian Film. In fact, this is a whole different vibe, and I was grateful for that.
However, it isn’t always effective. Yelena’s quest to hunt down certain individuals becomes a slog at times, the film’s almost two-hour run time being part of the problem. There is too much filler, too many odd verbal exchanges, and extended scenes that could have been cut down or removed. This would have been the perfect film to clock in at ninety minutes, like in the good old days, but there was an effort to cram as much as they could into a movie. It becomes a double-edged sword, however, as a much shorter film would have resembled John Wick meets Crank, and while that might have its appeal to some, that’s not what Radivojevic was aiming for here.
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Djokic does a good job as Yelena, infusing her with just the right amount of that heightened protective mother aggression while at the same time pushing past those limits at times, morals be damned. The idea of right and wrong isn’t really at play here, as the ‘God’ at the other end of the phone has shown some almost supernatural-like skill in the art of mayhem and death. Yelena ditches any pretense of the moral aspect of what she is doing and what possible higher power is involved, and gets on with the job she has been given. Protecting an unborn child is an excellent motivation for survival.
Karmadonna is a decent directorial debut for Radivojevic, as he leans into familiar topics and tropes and attempts to put his own twisted spin on them. It’s messy, unhinged at times, and probably too long, but it did have its moments of entertainment and style, and that counts for something.
Karmadonna had its World Premiere at TIFF on Sept. 9th.
