Gräns

If you liked the Norwegian movies Troll hunter or Thale, you'll also like this Swedish-Danish co-production, which has been a festival hit at both Cannes and Karlovy Vary, and probably a lot more festivals to come. You could say the Swedes and Danes seem inspired by the folkloric tales from Norwegian directors, having huge success the latter years.

Saw this at the screening in the Thermal grand hall (cap. 1150) and hardly any went away during the showing, due to the this film being quite captivating.

Border (Originally: Gräns) first appears to be a drama about an odd looking and rather strange woman in her late thirties with a seemingly unique talent in semlling fear, and she has a suitable job as a customs inspector at a Swedish ferry port. She can sniff out guilt, shame, fear and rage. Off-duty, she is a loner, loving quietness in the woods close to her rural home, with a redneck living with her, in separate beds, and she visits her seemingly half demented father in a nursing home. But one day she meets a man which looks surprisingly like her.

This is only the beginning, as the film now takes a slide into a different genre.

Director is Ali Abbassi, who has the equally strange concepts before in the movie Shelley. Well directed and well played. This is far from being a comedy, but there are many funny moments and the audience had huge outburst of laughter.

The title "Border" is really well suited in all ways. Very much recommended, and really something else.

This is a weird one, in a good way. The closest thing I could compare it to is Eraserhead or Basketcase, and much like those films it's best viewed not knowing anything about it going in. Definitely a lot of growth here for writer John Lindqvist of 'Let the Right One In' fame. He really knows how to create a modern fairy tale through minimalism and his Swedish sensibilities really translate well for this story. All the performances here are terrific, especially the lead actress. I was also blown away by the prosthetic work, it's some of the best I've ever seen. Accolades aside I thought the cinematography left much to be desired and the story to be a bit predictable at points. Definitely not a film for everyone, and I'd have a hard time recommending it to most.

"Border" (2018 release from Sweden; 110 min.) brings the story of Tina. As the movie opens, we get to know Tina, a Swedish Customs inspector, who happens to have an obvious facial deformity, as well as a heightened sense of smell which allows her to detect how people feel (shame, rage, fear, etc.) One day she is able to sense something on a guy, and it turns out he was hiding a memory card containing child pornography. The police are amazed at her abilities, and ask her to assist in the investigation as to who made the pornography. Meanwhile in a parallel story, one day a guy passes through Customs, and he happens to have a very same facial structure... At this point we are less than 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from up-and-coming Iranian-Swedish writer/director Ali Abassi. Here he brings a tale to the big screen that without a doubt is the one of the most original and fantastical movies of the year, period, and I see more than 150 movies per year. Given the plot-heavy nature of the movie, I can't say a whole lot more, so you'll just have to take my word for it. And even simply describing the plot would never equate to the actual movie experience. The comparison is unfair, but I can't help but think back to another Swedish movie from now already 10 years ago that also surprised us out of nowhere: "Let the Right One In". The comparison is unfair because that is a horror film, and "Border" certainly is not that. But it's the originality that strikes me as the common character in both. Beware: there are some scenes in "Border" that some people will find absolutely disturbing, if not worse. No, this movie is not for the faint-hearted, that's for sure. Major kudos to Eva Molander in the role of Tina, under heavy make so that she's basically unrecognizable, but what a performance, oh my!

"Border" premiered at this yer's Cannes film festival, to universal acclaim. Sweden has also submitted this as its official entry for the 2019 Best Foreign Language Movie nominations. The movie opened out of the blue at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and the Thursday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well (5 people, including myself). As it turns out, Thursday was the last day of its limited 1 week run. I can's see this playing long in theater, and I'm also quite certain that Hollywood will not end up remaking it (as it did with "Let the Right One In"), for that "Border is just too "out there". But don't let that deter you from checking it out, be it in the theater (not very likely), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion. For me, "Border" is a WINNER.

This one was a weird one but it worked on the level. Felt like watching a horror and romantic comedy that in the end felt like something completely different.

Not for the faint hearted. The film had me completely engrossed I have never seen anything like it. Extremely weird sometimes even disturbing but a strange array of beauty emminatea from the lead despite this. Plenty of twists and turns along the way an extremely enjoyable watch.