Karmadonna

An expectant mother’s third trimester is complicated by an enigmatic phone call from a voice that claims to be a God or “the creator of content” to use his profane parlance. After a sinister demonstration of the self-proclaimed deity’s omniscient powers, the voice offers an ultimatum: murder a select list of individuals or lose her unborn child. And this is how Yelena (Jelena Djokić) finds herself descending into the Serbian criminal underground to cross names off a divine hit list, from corrupt cops to toxic social-media influencers.

Born of one of the minds responsible for A Serbian Film, among the most notorious exploitation films of all time, Aleksandar Radivojević’s directorial debut is far more palatable, but it‘s nevertheless another audacious portrait of an individual coerced to extreme limits. Shot with the piss and vinegar of a Sam Raimi spook-a-blast, Karmadonna instigates a provocative spiritual discourse between the holy hijacker and his hostage, invoking heretical Buddhist teachings and sardonic cultural critiques, as Yelena shoots, stabs, and incinerates her way towards an ultimate target that rules over a popular reality television show set in a sadistic sanitarium.

Amidst all this bombastic bedlam and blasphemy, Djokić is terrific as Yelena; a beating heart of relatable weary resolve in the face of an imperfect and sometimes downright ugly world. Sporting a trench coat and frequently wearing an unimpressed scowl, she iconically recalls Gena Rowlands’ Gloria or Brigitte Lin’s assassin from Chungking Express, but with a fiery red mane that foreshadows the blood she’s about to bathe in.

PETER KUPLOWSKY