Skinning

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.

Skinning is a movie about skinheads in Serbia. Even if you haven't been acquainted with skinhead subculture or Serbia it quickly becomes apparent that the authors took a lot of liberties which, in turn, were necessary to create a feature film interesting to broader audience.

In this sense, Skinning is a work of fiction although it borrows heavily from reality. It tells a bleak story about rough young people. As it usually is the case, soon the politicians and secret service step in to manipulate them. What i particularly liked is that Skinning never became vulgar nor sought undeserved attention by explicit scenes of sex and violence.

Eventually, the actress who caught my attention was Bojana Novakovic. You might also see her deliver an excellent performance in Burning Man (2011) playing next to Matthew Goode.

For folks that are not familiar with the Serbian political development after NATO bombing of Belgrad it's maybe just another Skinhead/Hooligan film. But relying on facts of 2009 in Serbia it shows how young football hooligans get used by corrupt police and influencing politicians for their own goals.

Not in all points is the personal development of the main character Novica, a good student with an extraordinary math talent, to the leader of a brutal Skinhead gang comprehensible.

But with believable actors and a thrilling score, with bloody and sometimes brutale fighting and killing attacks, this Serbian movie is very watchable for lovers of this genre.

Of all the skinhead movies this one is definetely up there. Whether or not you agree with Novica's (the main character) actions or beliefs it is still entertaining. DO NOT watch with English dub, its time you grew some balls and either learnt a language other than Anglais or read the subtitles. The story of Novica is good and all around good characters and plot. Don't watch with your family because there are some sex scenes. At the end of the day the bad reviews on the movie are people who shouldnt have watched the moves in the first place. The movie is intended for a certain audience and dont waste your time if you dont meet that.