A film containing scenes of sexual violence has been banned in South Australia the day before it is scheduled to screen at Melbourne's Underground Film Festival.

The movie called A Serbian Film is about a pornographic actor who appears in a snuff movie, and was initially given an R18+ rating.

The controversy has prompted the Federal Government to ask the national film classification board to review its decision to allow the film into Australia.

A spokeswoman for Federal Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor says the review will not affect the screening of the film at the Melbourne festival tomorrow night.

The film contains references to bestiality and paedophilia.

It was due to be released on DVD in South Australia tomorrow.

Attorney-General John Rau says the film was refused classification by the state's Classification Council.

"It was grotesque at a number of levels. Exploitative sexual violence, offensive depictions of interactions between children and adults, exploitative behaviour generally of a nature that is so unusual that I can't imagine how any right-thinking person could think that this was something that should be appropriately, legally obtained in South Australia," he said.

Mr Rau says the film was approved nationally after being rejected twice.

"It's not just my opinion, but the opinion of the South Australian Classification Council, that we respectfully disagree with the decision made at a national level in respect to this particular film," he said.

Film festival

The director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Richard Wolstencroft, is getting ready to show a legal version of the film.

His festival has been the centre of controversy before.

"I'm against the banning of any film, as long as no-one's actually been hurt," he said.

"I personally think it does cross the line and I literally was not going to play it, but I went, 'No, that's the reason I should play it because that's what I'm about and who am I to judge?'

"Because I would be acting [as] the censor myself and I thoroughly detest that kind of thinking, so even as it made me question it, this film is not illegal and as far as I can tell no-one was hurt in the making of it; it was made legally, so I can't see why the film shouldn't be played."

Deeper value

ABC movie critic Margaret Pomeranz says A Serbian Film has deeper artistic value than the controversy might suggest.

"I don't know that I want to see this film, but I have been adequately warned and so I can make a choice about whether I see it or not," she said.

"I think that's really the issue isn't it in South Australia, where I believe it's going to be banned.

"It's meant to be, I believe, a metaphor for what Serbia's been through over the last 15 years, which obviously wasn't pleasant and particularly for those who were up close to it.

"The fact is I think it was made with very serious intent. It's getting very seriously discussed all around the world.

"You know you can either dismiss this as over-the-top torture porn, or you can take into account the origin of this film and the most terrible things that happened in Serbia.

"And if you have a filmmaker who is angry and wants to make a point of that, then I think he should be allowed to."