Shaitan's Warrior

The movie is very funny. If you are an advanced war crime humor enjoyer you will like this film a lot. The cuts between scenes with completely different atmospheres can be so funny, plus adding the plot sometimes just doesn't make sense. If you know a bit of Serbian history (nisi stranac niko vam Srbije ovo ne gleda) you will find it very funny when the Knez of Serbia Karadjordje fights a Turkish demon sheitan that the film is based on. The acting is top-notch and you sometimes forget you are watching a movie. Best enjoyed with a drink or two. You will tear your stomach muscles by just laughing.

This is a film thought up and executed by a 25 year old University student, Stevan Filipovic. After a fallow period in Serbian cinema, Setjanov Ratnik has been welcomed as a re-birth of Serbian cinematography.

Filipovic worked for 7 years on this project and with a group of fellow students realised a dream only made possible by their joint passion and commitment. They found backers to cover the modest production costs and managed to pay a handful of professional actors to appear in it. When you consider the economic weakness of Serbia, this is remarkable.

Filipovic and a colleague even executed the CGI effects themselves - effects that bear comparison with those of Hollywood movies. The story is complicated and in Western terms not the most original but the treatment Filipovc gives it is very much his own. There is a lot of humour, political satire and references to ancient Serbian history and folklore. If this film ever comes out with English subtitles, be sure you don't miss it. After years of empty cinemas, the people of cities like Belgrade and Novi Sad are flocking in their hundreds and tickets have been sold out since the premiere on April 19th.

Although it was advertised as a horror, this movie is actually a very decent comedy. People who dislike it, usually don't understand the idea behind it. I'd say it's one of those movies with the spirit (like Minje!).

If taken seriously, the story is (although watchable) nothing special or unseen before. I enjoyed watching the stereotypical "Serbian Bad Guy" comments on supernatural and terrifying situations. It is also notable that this movie is done mostly by young talents from the academy and that it features the best visual effect in Serbian cinematography yet. Way to go people!

All in all, I enjoyed the movie, and I consider it one of my favorites. I would recommend it to everyone.

"Sheitan Warrior" is Serbian homage to teenage slasher-horror-comedy movies from the eighties and, if you are at least a bit familiar with this genre, there's no need for me to describe you the story itself. The movie combines elements typical of high school comedies from the '80s and '90s with a slasher-horror story in the style of Freddy Krueger or Jason, but does it in the Serbian way. Here you will find a comedy based on a social critique of the society, characters who are representatives of various classes and groups that the local audience will easily recognize, especially if they grew up in the nineties, but also interesting pseudo-historical/mythological elements that we have not met before in domestic cinema. In terms of effects and production, "Warrior" is lagging behind the world, but it is also quite ahead of what we are accustomed in the domestic film and its flaws are quite covered by good directing and acting. The cast is mostly amateur, but in minor roles there are also many great names of domestic cinema and theater, such as Petar Bozovic, Svetlana Bojkovic, Marko Nikolic (for the third time in his career in the role of Karadjordje), Branislav Lecic, Dragan Nikolic, Irfan Mensur, Teofil Pancic, Eva Ras, as well as Bora Djordjevic. The amateur part of the cast is occasionally over-the-top, with several shame-transfers, but it is possible that it is deliberate. Most of the kids very convincingly play typical representatives of various teenage groups, and Vladimir Tesovic is simply hilarious in the role of nerd who is constantly bullied, which drives him to utter madness and makes him turn to the forces of evil.

Objectively, in terms of world cinema, this is not a particularly good movie, and probably does not deserve the rating I gave it, but considering that, for this climate, the film is quite genuine and brings a breeze of freshness to the stale Serbian scene, as well as the fact that it is made by inexperienced students with a budget ridiculous for such a project, as well as invested effort worth every respect, from this point of view rating seven is an insultingly low.

7/10

This film is one of the first movies in our cinematography that have VFX, and that is great movement. But that is not all, the story is not ordinary for SCG movies.

It's a fiction that connects our history with real time happenings, and one of the first movies that represents our national heroes in another light ... fiction light ...

It's amazing when you see all that stuff in one peace.

It has parts where you can see how the life was under Turkish empire for five hundred years.

And you can see the beginning of those kids that lived in Slobodan Milosevics time, and what they became.

... that's why I gave mark 10

Keep it up ...