DJAVOLJA VAROS (DEVIL’S TOWN)

Serbia, 2009, 82 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Vladimir Paskaljevic.

Devil’s Town is a brief absurdist Serbian comedy. The action takes place over one day in Belgrade. It is the day when a tennis star from Serbia is playing an important match and everyone is following it.

The film focuses on a range of people. A businessman who is not succeeding in business because of the city corruption. He has become infatuated with a young girl who is breaking up with a wealthy teenager (whose father is the equivalent of the Mafioso). There are also rich prostitutes, the daughter of one of them who is learning to play tennis and is best friends with the daughter of the house’s made. They are friends, they clash. The mother is involved in a boat trip for businessmen (with the Mafioso type) who are then gunned down by assassins. There is a young man whose wife is a prostitute, unbeknown to him, who lets his baby have an accident and finishes up in hospital. There is also his stoner friend who wants to make a film about Devil’s Town – with western money and making the Serbs seem as mad as possible is a way of ensuring western money. He is the brother of the businessman. There is also a taxi driver who drives the businessman, is angry, has served a prison sentence, is bent on vengeance – and his first victim is the mother of the young girl who is befriending the businessman. There is also an old man, a gynaecologist, who visits the brothel and meets the wife of the man with the baby. Later we learn that he is the father of the businessman as well as the stoner who wants to make the film.

The film has all kinds of connections of characters, with the motif of international success in tennis underlying it. However, the film paints a satiric and black picture of Serbia.

1.The impact of the film? Serb? Belgrade? The range of characters? Their interactions? Their moral and amoral values? A cross-section of society, an image of Serbia today?

2.The Belgrade settings, homes, tennis courts, clubs? The boats on the river? Hospital? Realistic?

3.The coincidences, the interlinking lives of the central characters? Credible?

4.The businessman, his absence from Serbia, his strained relationship with his father, not going to see him? His father being a widower, marrying again? Widower again? Not caring for his son – yet wanting to see him in hospital? The businessman and the encounter with the taxi driver and his aggression? Going to see the young girl, his relationship with her, meeting the boy who is infatuated with her? His brother being the heroin addict, wanting to make a film? His not being able to succeed because of corruption in officialdom? Paying one official three times for the same job? Disillusionment with Belgrade, reconciling with his father, wanting to leave?

5.The girl, at home with her mother? Her permissive attitude, with the young boy, breaking up with him, his coming to visit, his hitting her? His taking her out, her relationship with the businessman? Breaking off, the sexual relationship with the young boy? Her mother’s reaction? The mother, the taxi driver arriving, the confrontation, his murdering her? The businessman knocking him out, hoping that he wasn’t dead, his being taken to the hospital?

6.The young boy, rich, his Mafioso father? His relationship with the girl, phone calls, visiting, arguments, hurt? His going to the prostitutes, their kind treatment of him? His going back to the girl, confessing the truth to her, sexual relationship, breaking it off? His getting in the car, crashing, surviving, being offered the part in the film?

7.The prostitutes, the brothel, the gynaecologist and his encounter with the young woman? The revelation that she was the mother of the baby? Her husband not knowing her job? On the boat, with the businessmen, with the mother of the young girl playing tennis? The sex, the assassination, overboard, swimming ashore? The revelation of the truth? The husband, his watching the tennis with the stoner, putting the baby on the shelf, the baby falling, taking it to hospital? His concern? The reconciliation?

8.The Mafioso type, arrogance, the business partnership, the woman, the treatment of the women, their deaths?

9.The taxi driver, his life story, his being in prison, violence, murder? Attacking the businessman? Going to the woman, confronting her, the schooldays memory, choking the woman?

10.The stoner, his plans for a film, Devil’s Town as a tourist attraction, presenting mad Serbs? His presenting the music, playing the mouth organ, the sounds – and the absurd comedy? His going to visit his father, the gynaecologist, ringing his brother, the businessman? The end, the music, encountering the rich boy and offering him the part?

11.The gynaecologist, going to the brothel, sympathetic, his treatment of the girl, his collapse, hospital, reconciliation with his sons?

12.The cross-section of Serbs – presented in a Balkan manner, upfront and boisterous? A critique of society?