Skinning (2010)

Life is sometimes rude game: one mistake can buy you ticket to hell.

Director:

Stevan Filipovic

Writers:

Stevan Filipovic (screenplay), Stevan Filipovic (story)

Stars:

Nikola Rakocevic, Viktor Savic, Bojana Novakovic

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nikola Rakocevic	...	Novica
Viktor Savic	...	Relja
Bojana Novakovic	...	Mina
Natasa Tapuskovic	...	Inspektorka Lidija
Nikola Kojo	...	Inspektor Milutin
Dragan Micanovic	...	Profesor matematike
Srdjan Miletic	...	Pufta
Milos Tanaskovic	...	Mirko
Predrag Ejdus	...	Profesor Hadzi-Tankosic
Jasmina Avramovic	...	Dezurna profesorka
Vladimir Tesovic	...	Stanislav
Milan 'Caci' Mihailovic	...	Novicin otac
Bojan Lojkovic	...	Svarog
Joana Knezevic	...	Valkira
Zoran Nastic	...	Zver

Storyline

SISANJE is a story of a young Belgrade high school math champ Novica who gets seduced into the world of skinheads by their charismatic leader Relja. Novica joins the gang of racist skinheads in an attempt to overcome the geek status in school but soon enough he is sucked into the world of racism, violence and hooliganism, the skinhead movement takes him over and eventually he starts climbing up the ladder in the skinhead hierarchy.

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Plot Keywords:

anarchism | secret service | revolution | skinhead | racism | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

official movie site

Country:

Serbia

Language:

Serbian

Release Date:

6 October 2010 (Serbia)

Also Known As:

Skinning

Filming Locations:

Belgrade, Serbia

Box Office

Budget:

EUR500,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$288,512

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hypnopolis

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the third Serbian film to be released on Blu-ray.

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Connections

References 300 (2006)

User Reviews

I "enjoyed" it very much!

Some words ahead: If you've never heard from Serbia or have no idea what it is or where it is, your impression of this film will probably be lower. Too many things you need to know prior to understanding all terms used, and to be honest: Who knows the political situation of Serbia then and now? Well, I was lucky enough to have at least a rudimentary knowledge of that so I didn't have to scratch my head the whole time :-)

If you leave that aside, you have a solid, dense, exciting and - for that sub-genre (skin-hooligan-drama or whatever you'd call it) - a few quite(!) novel ideas. The acting is - in my humble opinion - very good, the characters are all believable, the story is interesting although a bit short and therefore compressed, but overall very good. All characters are, if not likable, then at least understandable in their actions, which is vital for a drama to work. An open minded viewer assumed, but I guess you're not reading this if you're seeking for another comedy.

For a laughable (nowadays *sigh*) budget of 500k it's an excellent work. Hollywood doesn't even manage to release a believable porn-movie with that budget ,-)

Also I really liked that no side is taken in a shallow way. You get hit in the face by the quite decent brutality (think of the budget!), the social background and the political system (isn't it the same everywhere anyway?). The placing of real footage for less subtle shocking reasons was well placed and fit well.

This was my second Serbian film. The first one being "a Serbian film" I didn't knew if I could expect anything decent. But "Skinning" has class and is a totally serious drama. I would say that I liked this one the most of all these skin/Nazi/hooligan-flicks like "Romper Stomper" or even "Hooligans" or the lesser known works.

I usually don't write reviews, but I saw this one hasn't any but it deserves at least one good because of it's comparably low voting. Judge for yourself! If you enjoyed "Hooligans" or anything like that, you'll enjoy this one too. Well at least in the same way you could "enjoy" war-movies, you know what I mean.

For your better valuing of this review: I'm German, male, around 40, seen thousands (literally) of movies, like most genres (instead of romance, sport and most comedy) and am getting more demanding in a cinematographically way every year :)

And before I forget: If you're into violence but cannot stand naked people: There is at least one quite graphic sex-scene. So maybe skip that one :-)

From me, a solid 7,5 with a tendency upwards.