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| Standing in a very vivid version of a Swedish forest, Eva Melander's uniformed lead stands out on this curiosity-sparking poster for Ali Abbasi's Border |
Tina is a customs officer at a Swedish ferry crossing, a job which she is especially good at since she can smell sinners out. Her unusual, Neanderthal-like traits one day match those of a mysterious crosser, Vore, whom she immediately has a connection with.
Border is written by Isabella Eklöf (Holiday (2018)), John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In/Låt den Rätte Komma In (2007), novel), based on his same-titled short story from the collection Let the Old Dreams Die/Låt de Gamla Drömmarna Dö (2011), and co-writer/director Ali Abbasi (Shelley (2016)). It is a very strange film that is part horror, part fairy tale, part crime drama, and partly a romance. Some may find it very beautiful, a few may find it erotic; some may find it very funny, - and some of its grotesqueness does provoke chuckles, - others mostly disturbing and frightening. I found it mostly uncomfortable.
Tina's journey is so intimate, and the bodily fixation in the film is so strong that it almost continually seems to transgress an intimacy border most other films keep up. The transgression, of course, is felt more strongly because both romantic leads are uncommonly hideous to look at (SPOILER and even have unusual genitalia and reproductive abilities!) As if to make the film's unpleasantness an absolute constant, a subplot concerning pedophiles and baby pornography is also a prominent part of the plot. - Oh yeah: Plus voracious insect-munching, don't forget that.
There are many animals in the film: Impressive scenes with a moose, a fox and deer help keep it fascinating; the prosthetics and makeup designs for Tina and Vore are also incredibly accomplished, and what the leads must have gone through for this film boggles the mind.
The unpleasantness also causes the film to feel overlong, SPOILER as Border develops into a quirky riff on an old Scandinavian mythical forest creature, the troll. This will add interest for Scandinavians and outlandishness for anyone else, I should think.
The score is in line with the overall confusing tone and hard-to-categorize elements, sometimes upping its art film romance feel, at others sounding as a hip indie horror. The head-scratching and disturbing elements (concerning infants) are not illuminated by the film's end, as audiences make it with clammy hands and backs out of the cinemas.
Border is likely to be 2018's strangest film, and it is fascinating but also a complete cipher to me, besides its genre fantasy allure: Does it tell us anything, and if so what?
From a country with such vast internal problems, no present government and a state that has just rolled out an initiative which encourages people to turn in hand-grenades and other bombs and explosives at local police stations with impunity, as a means to calm gangland explosions that are now so common in the soon unrecognizable Sweden, (not for a week or two but running for 3 months!), - I can't help feeling discouraged that leading Swedish filmmakers apparently don't dare tackle more of that pressing and indeed unfantastic, disturbing reality.
Abbasi gives an interview about the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unreported
= Uncertain
[Border premiered 10 May (Cannes Film Festival, France) and runs 108 minutes. Casting took a reported 18 months. Shooting took place in Sweden. Eva Melander (Flokken/Flocken (2015)) reportedly spent 4 hour before shooting every day to have the prosthetics applied. The film won the Un Certain Regard prize in Cannes, and it has been elected as Sweden's entry for the coming Oscars. It is slated to open 19 October in Norway, 25 October in Russia, 26 Oct. in USA, 3 January in Portugal and 9 January in France. Abbasi does not have his next project announced yet. Leads Melander and Eero Milonoff (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki/Hymyilevä Mies (2016)) also don't have coming gigs announced. Border is fresh at 95 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Border?
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