Border

Name: Border
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance
Released: October 26, 2018
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 75
Cast: Andreas Kundler, Ann Petrén, Eero Milonoff, Eva Melander, Joakim Olsson

2018

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 64 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 64 Ratings

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Border

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Movie Details & Credits

Neon | Release Date: October 26, 2018 | R

Starring: Andreas Kundler, Ann Petrén, Eero Milonoff, Eva Melander, Joakim Olsson, Jörgen Thorsson, Kjell Wilhelmsen, Matti Boustedt, Rakel Wärmländer, Sten Ljunggren, Tomas Åhnstrand, Viktor Åkerblom

Summary: Tina (Eva Melander) is a border guard who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man with a smell that confounds her detection, she is forced to confront hugely disturbing insights about herself and humankind.

Director: Ali Abbasi

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 110 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Phil de Semlyen

Mar 13, 2019

This unusual film sits in a genre of one. Read full review

The Film Stage Rory O'Connor

May 17, 2018

Border is only really at its best when focusing on Tina’s rediscovery of her true nature. Read full review

Karen Gordon

Dec 3, 2018

Border is more resonant than you’d expect, and one of the oddest movies of the year. Read full review

John Bleasdale

May 17, 2018

Border is a piece of modern gothic, a far out midnight movie which delivers on the WTF-ery while maintaining a surprisingly big and generous heart. Read full review

Pat Brown

Oct 25, 2018

The film’s slow reveal of its fantastical elements, which evoke the erratic, dreamlike strangeness of folk tales, makes them all the more unsettling. Read full review

Bilge Ebiri

Oct 25, 2018

While the film does take some twists and turns — some fairly contrived — it mostly drills down and explores her emotional conundrum without drawing symbolic conclusions about the world we live in. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Simon Abrams

Oct 26, 2018

Even the most open-minded viewers may have difficulty relating to the two lead protagonists in Border, a cynical Swedish romantic-fantasy that follows estranged border patrolwoman Tina (Eva Melander) and her unconvincing attraction to Byronic stranger Vore (Eero Milonoff). Read full review

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User Reviews

Brent_Marchant

Oct 28, 2018

One of the best efforts at fusing multiple cinematic genres that I've ever seen. It's part crime drama, part fantasy, part horror flick, part offbeat love story and part noir thriller all rolled into one sumptuously filmed, deliciously unusual Swedish offering. This one will take you placesOne of the best efforts at fusing multiple cinematic genres that I've ever seen. It's part crime drama, part fantasy, part horror flick, part offbeat love story and part noir thriller all rolled into one sumptuously filmed, deliciously unusual Swedish offering. This one will take you places you don't expect at seemingly every turn, holding your interest intently, because you're never sure where it's going to go next. Director Ali Abbasi serves up a sometimes-funny, sometimes-twisted, sometimes-sweet tale that keeps viewers guessing right up to the closing credits. The changes in mood definitely keep you on your toes, but in the end it's well worth it.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

frannorthstar

Mar 3, 2019

Slow difference …and then surprises sent this film into a different ‘Twilight Zone’ seen before one were reality never so poignant failed, throwing faith in humanity further into a darken pit where left to abuse ourselves further excepted our faltering future.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DawdlingPoet

Nov 22, 2021

This is quite a dark film in tone. It struck a chord with me. Its about isolation, feeling out of place and being accepted for who you are. Its unsettling and quirky. Its hard to describe in any kind of detail. I think its worth seeing, definitely.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Bertaut1

Mar 20, 2019

Supremely weird, but thought-provoking, even if a little morally ambiguous

Based on the short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist, written for the screen by Lindqvist, Ali Abbasi, and Isabella Eklöf, and directed by Abbasi, Gräns is a psychological drama, a study of loneliness, a romance, aSupremely weird, but thought-provoking, even if a little morally ambiguous

Based on the short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist, written for the screen by Lindqvist, Ali Abbasi, and Isabella Eklöf, and directed by Abbasi, Gräns is a psychological drama, a study of loneliness, a romance, a body-horror, an investigation into what gives us our humanity, and a thriller. Set in a half-realist/half-fantastical milieu, no matter how fanciful the plot becomes, it remains always grounded in emotional realism. Problems include a subplot that feels disconnected from the main narrative, a ridiculous coincidence, a twist you can see a mile away, and a pronounced moral ambiguity that's difficult to parse. Nevertheless, this is unique filmmaking, raising all manner of questions about how we act towards the Other.

Tina (Eva Melander) is a customs officer with the ability to smell guilt. Suffering from deformities that give her a somewhat Neanderthal-like appearance, she is shocked to encounter Vore (Eero Milonoff), who has the same deformities. Although she smells something on him, she isn't sure what it is, and she lets him through customs. A few days later, he passes through again, this time volunteering to be searched. This leads to a shocking discovery, and the beginning of a strange relationship.

Given the fantastical components of the plot, one of the most interesting things about Gräns is how grounded in realism the aesthetic is. Indeed, o of the strongest elements of the film is how emotionally relatable Tina's arc is; the events may be fantastical, but the emotions are quotidian - loneliness, shyness, fear, love, disgust etc.

An important example of this is that Abbasi sets up a contrast between the forest which surrounds Tina's home and the rest of the locations. Presented as a somewhat magical place, whilst everything else is filmed with a cold palette of greys and washed out light blues and greens, the forest is shot with richer colours; the design elements are more imaginative; the camera work more fluid; even the sound design is more varied, suggesting the whole place is vibrantly alive, in stark contrast to the cold concrete and steel world seen elsewhere.

The film's opening scene establishes Tina's attraction to the animal world; as she gently handles a bug, before carefully placing it back into the grass. Later, there's a scene with a moose, another with a fox, and a scene in which she is rushing her neighbour to hospital to give birth but stops to let a family of deer cross the road. These scenes are shot by cinematographer Nadim Carlsen with a sense of wonder, and an almost ethereal quality, as far removed from the mundanity of the customs desk as you can get. For all her closeness to animals, however, Tina is equally as distant from humans, and is desperately lonely, in a society that judges based on appearance. On the other hand, Vore is introduced as a rebel against social norms; whereas Tina is ashamed of her differences, he is proud of his - seen most clearly at a buffet, where he takes all the smoked salmon, and then hungrily eats it with little concern for etiquette.

The film also probes what gives us our humanity, suggesting that in a world populated by humans lacking in humanity, maybe Tina and Vore are the most human characters, or certainly the most humane. Tied to this is the notion of finding one's tribe, and what kind of sacrifices and subversions of one's moral code, if any, are acceptable in that search. However, the film does end in an extremely morally ambiguous manner, and I've rarely come out of a movie with such a pronounced case of "what was the director trying to say with that?"

Elsewhere, a child porn subplot does little but detract from the main plot. I get that it's there to show us Tina's abilities and her moral code, but too much time is given to it without it ever being made to seem urgent or important. And when it is finally integrated into the main narrative, it happens with a plot twist so telegraphed, if you don't see it coming, you've never seen a movie before. Also, when we learn how the two plots connect, and when we backtrack to the start of the film, we find that the entire house of cards relies on a monumental movie coincidence.

These missteps aside, Gräns exposes the layers upon which our society is built, and is unafraid to suggest that exclusion has become a major facet of Western civilisation, an important topic at a time when there are increased calls for closed borders and increasingly irrational fears of the Other. The morality of the dénouement is a little questionable, but this is still a fine piece of work with a lot on its mind.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

amheretojudge

Feb 18, 2019

A Love Triangle.

Border Abbasi asks for a lot; fortunately "please" is not one of it. He gives a lot too. But then what he gives can be too much for sensitive ones. It's just not everyone's cup of tea. Poignancy will have a new definition at the end of it as innocence gets peeled blatantlyA Love Triangle.

Border

Abbasi asks for a lot; fortunately "please" is not one of it. He gives a lot too. But then what he gives can be too much for sensitive ones. It's just not everyone's cup of tea. Poignancy will have a new definition at the end of it as innocence gets peeled blatantly on screen. To balance the tone, he keeps his film thrive on its beauty. But this ongoing battle might leave the audience scarred for ever. Personally, I felt it challenging to go through this experience. Overwhelming it is, on both sides of the door, this romantic drama is a war that keeps scraping your wound. The only complaint in here could be his fantasy. Yes, it was asked for, but should it have been pathos to that scale?

What's worse above all, is that the mythology that it is set in, itself is gore. One often escapes into such tale to get lost in its unique wonder. But not here, his graphic vision tests you more than it teases you. As anticipated, such characters or content revolving around a bullied persona often fuels itself with fragile eye popping elements to lure you in. For instance, the textbook formula of igniting the spark between the lead couple, is often a series of incredibly adorable and mesmerizing elements that makes us root for them.

Don't get me wrong, it does make us root for them, but the procedure is a wee bit different, it bubbles up the raunchy wilderness among them that might scatter your heart into pieces and fix it back with temporary promises- and this is of the least inedible substance in the film. And now as far as the practicality of the world and society that we revolve around is concerned it is simply cringe worthy. Humanity,- if I dare call it- the exploration of it has been a bless and a curse.

Blessing for how honestly it conveys and a curse for how honestly it conveys. It felt more like documentary than it was cinematic. Tina- our protagonist- played by Eva Melander has done a fabulous work on foliating her performance through tiny meticulous notions of an animalistic nature. The way she keeps herself distant from everyone, the way she sniffs, her understanding of an innocent being afraid of her whether it be then babies or dogs, her performance is her awarenesses of the suit that she is covered under.

Vore, his love angle, portrayed by Eero Milonoff is equally good on supporting her where he doesn't get that wide a range. This chemistry is somewhat equivalent to- if I dare compare-Titanic. As in, a guy of his own set rules and laws enters into her calculative and well bordered lifestyle, invading through exhilarating new schemes ties the knot that she fails to unhook herself with; for a brief period. What was disappointing to me is that those schemes could have been more tantalizing. Border does differentiate the uniqueness of oneself, it asks for you to sit side by side comfortably, for hours, ages and lives.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Mauro_Lanari

Feb 1, 2020

(Mauro Lanari)
In order to be truly unpredictable, Abbasi should not have had to direct the adaptation of a short story by the highly predictable Lindqvist, another who, like del Toro, talks about genetic freaks, body shaming, identity minorities and sexual diversities not with the realism(Mauro Lanari)
In order to be truly unpredictable, Abbasi should not have had to direct the adaptation of a short story by the highly predictable Lindqvist, another who, like del Toro, talks about genetic freaks, body shaming, identity minorities and sexual diversities not with the realism of Browning, Herzog, Lynch but with the fantasy genre, therefore with the symbolism of the many Magneto against Xavier. In his case, of Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore to give himself a more artistic and authorial tone instead of mainstream for teenagers. And it's obvious that the result doesn't change.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

imthenoob

Apr 28, 2019

I appreciate the creativity that went into the project but that doesn't necessarily make it a good one. The film seemed to keep this grinding slow pace throughout and it never really picked up. And it never really stayed interesting either, Either with the main plot or the other subplots featured.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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