Leben und Tod einer Pornobande

I heard a lot about Life and Death of a Porno Gang. Being compared to A Serbian Film, saying it was equally disturbing and thought provoking and that it set the standard for extreme cinema in the future.

Personally i rate this film much higher than A Serbian Film. Both films tried to symbolize the difficulties of life in Serbia, but i felt with A Serbian Film, they tried way too hard to be provocative and the symbolism was lost in translation. However, Life and Death manages to create that sheer depression and desperation perfectly!

We have a group of people, put on the outer of society for the lifestyles they have chosen. They decide, to make money, to form a traveling show that features extreme sex acts. As they tour through the rural areas of Serbia, they are continually being hounded from the secluded communities, which ultimately leads them to even more desperate measures, involving making snuff films.

I am not aware of the situation of Serbia, but from what I hear, it is a pretty hard lifestyle. Survival of the fittest. I thought the movie really captured the cold, dark, dreary and depressing atmosphere of people facing desperation, and how far we will go to get ourselves out of the hole we just dug ourselves. I felt sorry for each character, as they regret all the terrible things they do, but facing starvation, they have little choice, which ultimately paints a VERY disturbing and depressing situation.

The film depicts extreme acts of sexuality and violence, so its definitely not for everyone. But if you want to test yourself and open your eyes to situations facing the less privileged, Life and Death of a Porno Gang comes highly recommended!

Quite a mess of a film, that is disjointed in it's narration, and at times distasteful. It feels like a film that doesn't really know it's own direction. Starts as a semi-comedy and spirals into the absurd, while bombarding us with pornographic imagery and snuff movie elements. But none of it has any real impact and ends up feeling just nasty for nasty's sake (A scene involving the killing of a goat was totally unnecessary, and quite disturbing)

Like a badly made cocktail of Lars von Trier's The Idiots, and part A Serbian Film, I found Zivot I Smrt Porno Band a pretty weak entry into modern European extreme cinema.

Zivot i smrt porno bande (The Life and Death of a Porno Gang) is the rare exception, at least for me, when it comes to extreme cinema. While most extreme films are mainly only made to shock audience members, this clever gem of a movie shocked me in an entirely different way. It was surprisingly funny, the story and characters were intriguing, and it had a certain visual style that could perfectly captured the mood of the film. If you can imagine if a game of Candlyland came to life, went feral, and was all captured on dirty 35mm film cameras, then you'd probably have some idea of what Porno Gang has in store.

I've just watched it...and I've never been so close to being stunned by a movie. So forgive me if I'm being incoherent. There are many movies that try to be deep, smart...They mostly end up being pretentious. Or you're left with something you're sure not even the filmmaker knows what's it about. They try to be philosophical, but get tangled in it. This movie is simple, very simple. Others want to trick you. They play with your senses for their gain, to achieve their goal. They try to impress you, shock you, make you cry...More often than not, it comes off cheap. This movie uses no tricks. This movie is...what it is. You have to deal with it. You can't discard it, or laugh it off and ignore it, it's too sincere. It enters you and you believe it. You become part of it. You're one of them. You're there, with the gang, standing around the victim, behind Vanja who is filming it all with his camera. And you're scared. Of yourself.

i was quite excited about watching this with a lot of reviewers saying it was better than a Serbian film which came out at the same sort of time. so i watched both in the same week and this one just doesn't cut it.

i wasn't engaged by the characters, their choices seemed stupid and the bad things that happen towards the end didn't shock or ram home any sort of point that hasn't been done better elsewhere.

there was just no interest in watching a gang of poor serbians wander the country in a van having sex in front of farmers.

the acting is below standard, the script rambles and the last hope of sex and violence is a waste of time.

watch 'a Serbian film' (uncut) instead.