Having co-written the notorious A Serbian Film, Aleksandar Radivojević steps behind the camera for the first time with Karmadonna (full review HERE), which premiered at TIFF to no shortage of strong reactions. His debut doesn’t tiptoe around metaphor or soften its blows — instead it dives headlong into a world of moral rot, corporate greed, and spiritual disillusionment.
At its centre is Jelena Djokić, , playing a heavily pregnant woman pushed to the edge after receiving a call from a voice claiming to be a deity — or, more disconcertingly, “the creator of content.” Given a brutal ultimatum to eliminate a series of corrupt figures or lose her unborn child, she embarks on a journey that mixes grim violence with sharp social critique.
To celebrate the film’s premiere at TIFF, we sat down with Radivojević and Djokić to discuss Karmadonna’s warped collision of spirituality and philosophy, the deft fusion of style and performance that renders it as hypnotic as it is harrowing, and the raw anger coursing through what is surely one of the year’s most confrontational debuts.
