Clip – Clip (2012)

Directed by: Maja Milos | 100 minutes | drama | Actors: Isidora Simijonovic, Vukasin Jasnic, Sanja Mikitisin, Jovo Maksic, Monja Savic, Katarina Pesic, Sonja Janicic, Jovana Stojiljkovic, Vladimir Gvojic, Nikola Dragutinovic, Mihajlo Nikolic, Dimitrije Arandjelovic, Zoran Makhadrasimovic, David Tasic

‘Clip’, the feature film debut by Serbian Maja Milos, won a Hivos Tiger Award at the IFFR 2012. The film shows us a raw, nihilistic picture of young people growing up in contemporary Serbia, with sixteen-year-old Jasna (an impressive role by Isidora Simijonovic), who tries in all sorts of ways to escape the ordinary, boring daily life. She is very dissatisfied with her life in a desolate neighborhood, where she lives with her terminally ill father and her exhausted mother (whom she sees as her personal cleaning lady…). We see a bored teenager who ignores school, supposedly studies with friends, goes to wild parties, does nothing in the house, constantly shoots movies (clips) with her mobile phone and desperately tries to flatter the ‘hunk’ from her school, Djole (Vakasin Jasnic). So she experiments with sex, often portrayed very explicitly, drink and narcotics.

After a confrontational visit to an orphanage, Jasna is finally shaken awake a bit. In a rare intimate dialogue with her boyfriend Djole, she seems – even if she doesn’t say it in so many words – to long for ‘the old days’. Her father (Jovo Maksic) and mother (Sanja Mikitisin), who really (as they should?) kiss after the birth of her younger sister Milica. She calls the memories nonsense, but the viewer knows better. Jasna is actually a fragile girl who longs for real love, a little warmth. Djole doesn’t seem pleased with her sudden expressions of love, but his violent outburst of jealousy at the next party speaks volumes. The two teenagers seem condemned to each other. Both looking for their own identity, they look to each other for support.

‘Clip’ has similarities with Larry Clarke’s 1995 film ‘Kids’ and the 2007 TV series ‘Skins’: young people who copy each other in extreme group behaviour, in search of the ultimate kicks to banish the emptiness. ‘Clip’ shows us young people who, sickened by all kinds of modern (mainly pornographic) media, reality shows and violence, try to determine their position in a country with a huge generation gap; modern Serbia, with its crumbling traditions, norms and values. It also shows us a terrifying reality. A poor underclass that grows up almost loveless and loses itself in extremes. Is this really the world that awaits our children as they grow older? A disturbing thought. ‘Clip’ is a film that will especially make parents think. What are their daughters and sons up to? Let’s hope ‘Clip’ isn’t exemplary, because that would be a sad statement…