Movie fans issue strict warning for controversial film banned in 40 countries that saw man arrested for screening

Warning: This article contains discussion of rape and child sexual assault portrayed in the film which some readers may find distressing

Movie fans have been issued a strict warning for one of the most controversial films of all time.

This comes after a film fan took to Reddit looking for recommendations for movies purposely intended to upset or trigger the audience member.

They took to the subreddit r/MovieSuggestions, asking specifically for ‘deeply unsettling films that trigger anxiety, paranoia, or emotional disturbance’.

While this understandably created a list of answers of films that are sure to frighten most people, one in particular came with an incredibly strict warning.

It's called A Serbian Film, if you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve probably heard hushed whispers of this film.

This is no regular controversial movie; it has been banned in over 40 countries, and it's so scandalous that someone was once even arrested for screening it.

The comment recommending it said of the film: “It will make you want to go take a shower and scrub the filth away from your body, followed by wanting to do the same with your brain and your soul.”

The movie focuses on a retired pornographic actor who is brought onto one last film after being offered a life-changing sum of money to star.

After it’s too late however, he realises he has signed for a snuff film, absolutely full of bizarre sexual content, murder, and a litany of things we cannot legally even tell you about.

One comment responding to the recommendation reiterated how distressing a watch it is, saying: “The ending haunted me.”

This was not even the only comment recommending it underneath the viral post, with one saying ‘Serbian Film fits quite nicely with your requests’, and another adding: “That was the brief from producer to director of [A Serbian Film].”

While many films that people say are ‘banned’ may be a slight exaggeration, in this case, A Serbian Film genuinely has a case to being one of the most banned films of all time.

The film was banned in over 46 countries (Unearthed Films)

Outright banned in at least 46 countries, the UK governing body (the BBFC) required a whopping three minutes and 48 seconds to be cut for it to be screened.

One attempt to screen the film in Spain even led to an arrest.

Angel Sala, director of the Sitges Film Festival of Catalonia, was arrested due to the explicit content featured in the film.

Among the numerous purposely sickening things put in the film were depictions of child sodomy and abuse, namely, in which the character helps deliver a baby and then rapes it.

While this was of course all fictional, it did not stop Spanish police from arresting Sala for holding an adults-only screening of the film.

(Unearthed Films)

Speaking exclusively to LADbible, the film’s director Srđan Spasojević previously said that the use of children in the film was meant to represent how vulnerable the ‘notion of the family’ was.

He said: “Humankind failed to create a nice place on this planet... when you have a family, it cannot survive on its own, it cannot win that battle - a family is influenced by everything around it.”

Discussing the controversial scene that got someone arrested, he said: “It's the most direct metaphor about how we feel living in today's world.

"The baby scene is just a feeling of ours, we had to do it, because that's the most honest confession we have (in the film) - this is my cry for help."

Based on all that, I’d say A Serbian Film more or less is the definitive answer to the viral question looking for the most f**ked up films.