Whereas the voice of God can take many kinds, few would most likely count on it to come back by way of a vengeful, crass, edgelord Buddha who communicates completely by way of butt-dial. And but that’s precisely how the deity avails itself to Yelena (Jelena Dokic), the protagonist of the vivacious however exhausting “Karmadonna.” Directed by “A Serbian Movie” co-writer Aleksandar Radivojevic, the film is thrilling at its most pulpy, and whereas it provides intriguing commentary across the futility of divine energy in a world that has been formed to serve the wants of essentially the most highly effective, like a long-winded dinner blessing its continued meandering could make you neglect about its substance.
We’ve seen any variety of tales about an unusual civilian pushed to her violent limits, however the added religious dimension to Yelena’s grueling odyssey is sufficient to make “Karmadonna” really feel novel. When Yelena first will get (actually) known as upon by the unholy pressure, she stays skeptical of who’s talking along with her as her thoughts is preoccupied with caring for her expectant little one. It isn’t till she witnesses a possessed little one run and slam his face into a close-by tree that she realizes the voice on the different finish of the road may simply be all-powerful. The deity — named Siddharta (Sergej Trifunović), and hilariously self-described as “the creator of content material” — conscripts her to kill an inventory of people or else he’ll slay Yelena’s unborn little one within the womb. Yelena begrudgingly agrees, and from the beginning, this determination is a intelligent carry on spiritual iconography, as if Mom Mary took up arms in opposition to the Roman forces herself as an alternative of letting her Son be crucified.
To her credit score, Jelena by no means performs Yelena as somebody whose fright destabilizes her. She could also be new to the entire agent of vengeance gig, however she onboards rapidly, and the enjoyment is witnessing her go from begrudging participant to mirthful executioner. At the beginning, she understandably feels that happening a killing spree will not be what’s greatest for her little one’s well being, however she rapidly will get on board with allotting judgment as soon as she interacts with the unsavory characters she’s requested to dispatch, from a brutish cab driver who harasses her to a predatory creator who makes use of his affect to govern underage girls into service.
Certainly, what Yelena is such a compelling character as a result of her warning and desperation are without end at conflict. It’s not solely that homicide is decidedly not her speciality, however in contrast to your Odenkirks, Reeves, or Patels, her being pregnant ensures she will’t afford to take the hits the opposite cinematic hitmen have readily invited. It’s that tactfulness of needing to guard her physique and totally decide to her vengeance that makes for thrilling viewing, because the stakes solely enhance with every new antagonist, and the margin of security dwindles from minuscule to nonexistent.
Likewise, Trifunović’s voice efficiency because the satan in her ear is price noting, because the Serbian actor’s traces by no means really feel phoned in. He goes on diatribes like a spoiled CEO, however his sardonic tantrums additionally get at a deeper fact. When Yelena asks why he doesn’t homicide the names himself, Noah’s Ark model, Siddharta quips that the forces of globalization (“companies, globalists, the one %”) make it troublesome to intervene straight. Certainly, when essentially the most highly effective can reshape the world within the methods they see match and look at themselves as deities, that leaves little room for true spirituality or hallowed justice to have a combating probability in opposition to such methods. Even essentially the most well-meaning of individuals have their good intentions curdle into cruelty when mirrored by way of the prism of company life. “You taught me to hate you,” Siddharta says of humanity as a complete; a sobering fact that we’re greater than able to justifying our personal destruction. In fact, Siddharta requires Yelena’s providers to dispatch these explicit males as their “metaphysical armor” protects them; a kind of karmic payback, and you may virtually hear the embarrassment at this humiliation laced between his each barking order.
The movie is pretty simple in that it’s about Yelena carving her method by way of a progressively worse record of individuals in violently inventive methods (greenback payments, shot glasses, and crucifixes are just some of the gadgets plunged into sweaty our bodies). You may really feel the movie straining to take care of its momentum, and Đorđe Miljenović’s rating pushes the motion together with an urgency that displays a worry of boredom greater than something; at a number of factors when Yelena is dispatching a sufferer, the music crescendos to a vociferous pitch, as if to attract consideration to itself as an alternative of the epic setpiece that’s unfolding.
Within the arms of cinematographer Aleksandar Jakonic, the digital camera doesn’t transfer a lot because it prances. Jakonic likes his dolly photographs, and in a method that evokes Sam Raimi’s “Evil Lifeless” movies, the digital camera tromps about with the liberty of a vengeful spirit, unafraid to rise up near its characters’ bloodied, burnt, and sliced-up visages. On the identical time, the movie’s lens is all the time desperate to broaden perspective for a mordantly humorous impact. Take a sequence the place Siddhartha can management two henchmen of an leisure tycoon and forces them to bash their heads till one among their skulls cracks: Whereas Yelena infiltrates the compound, her skirmishes are interrupted by the 2 males frequently working at one another, and it’s hilarious to witness her attempt to circumnavigate her method right into a compound whereas evading the head-butting males.
“Karmadonna” is pretty easy on this method, with occasional detours into the lives of different characters like Siddharta’s son Bane (Milos Lolic), nevertheless it’s primarily about Yelena, the vengeance quest she’s been conscripted in the direction of, and the our bodies left behind in her wake. It’s off-putting and never precisely nice viewing, however there’s some apt enchantment in its refusal for simple agreeability. Generally, we dig ourselves into holes that even the satan gained’t comply with us by way of.
Grade: B-
“Karmadonna” premiered on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. It’s at present looking for U.S. distribution.
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