Border 2

Why the fuck should you watch “Border”? • Your mind and body is ready to be challenged. Well maybe not the body but definitely the bright mind of yours. • You want to know wtf Nordic magical realism means. • Watching disoriented realities with dark but weirdly empathetic and intimate tones makes you intrigued just like a dog is intrigued by his tail. • You want to feel and think during a movie, not to sit back relax and stuff buckets full of popcorn into ya face.

With the Swedish dark drama, fantasy, romance mix “Border” there is only one question to ask — are you ready to be surprised, captivated and completely enthralled? Because this movie that the Iranian-Swedish director has quite nicely called “Nordic magical realism” is something that you have probably not seen before. And I mean it in a very good sense, not kind of “you will blasted in the face with weird, strange, disturbing and meaningless shit for a hour and a half”. No, “Border” lures you in with the hint of realism that develops engrossingly to something else. Something that you need to experience by yourself if you are ready to witness some, hmm how to put it, a little more demanding scenes.

As Border is a film that would be waaay too easy to spoil, I can’t go to details. But lets say, Border is a contemporary fairy tale for adults, which tells a story about a customs officer called Tina who looks a little different from everybody else and has a particular skill that is very beneficial for her work. Because of her different physical appearance, Tina feels a little lost in life. Until she meets Vore, who charms her with his similar looks. But this isn’t a love story, oh no, it is something unique that brings different genres together to tell a weird, but sincere story about being, belonging, feeling, loving, and being your true self. Also it takes place in the beautifully bluish green Nordic woods, mostly, making it even more fantastical.

To give you a hint about the storyline, I will present my reactions and feelings briefly: Beginning -ok this is a little slow but something strange is going on here. something weird and interesting is definitely going on here that pulls me deeper and deeper (exactly where I like to be pulled). Middle — tell me what the fuck is going on, there is something strangely captivating with these odd and ugly looking characters, why can’t I look away. End — ok W T F, you just didn’t go there and show that, wait …wait did I really needed to see this, yes, probably I did, definitely… whaaaaaat theeee fuuck, YES! So the question is are you ready to experience one of the most original and fascinating film of the year 2018? If the answer is YES, please don’t spoil the film by reading or watching things, just don’t. And if you have already seen it, please join the conversation below, because you already know — this is a film, which won’t leave anyone indifferent, in good or in bad.

Why the fuck you shouldn’t watch “Border”? • WTF these protagonists don’t look like regular actors, who look prettier than my average looking workmates that I have to look at every day. • You are impatience and want to know everything right a way, when you watch a movie. • Your limits of your fantasy are as tiny as chances of redeeming the DCU ongoing franchise. • You leave youtube when you see something w e i r d, and then don’t spend hours and hours watching some more.

The film "Border" Swedish director of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi. I believe that in this picture about unusual inhabitants of Sweden, a study of mores, social satire, a love story, a gloomy tale, an absurd comedy and a terrible thriller have merged.

Tina is very unattractive in appearance, but in a prosperous society of modern Scandinavia, her life is no worse than that of others. An old father in an idyllic nursing home, at home waiting for a boyfriend - not seven spans, but good-natured, growing rottweilers. Tina's job is also stable and is well paid. It serves at customs, meeting passengers from a ferry cruising between Helsinki and Stockholm. They demand Tina's unique gift: she is able to smell the intruder. Not drugs or other prohibition on his baggage, but feelings of guilt, shame, fear. Tina is never wrong. Until it stops Vore - an overgrown, unshaven, crook bearing man, frighteningly similar to her. During the search, nothing suspicious is found, but the unmotivated Vore leaves Tina with the words "See you soon". Obviously, they are destined to meet again, and this meeting will change the lives of both.

“Border” is a Swedish film, shot by an ethnic Iranian, 37-year-old writer and architect Ali Abbasi (this is his second film after the acclaimed horror "Shelley"), and presented in the "Particular Look" section. Typically, such a movie is not written from festivals, where they show pictures of film directors, from Trier to Godard. However, it just so happened that Ali Abbasi has more ingenuity, freedom, humor and courage turning into arrogance than most Cannes contestants. About him you need to write, talk, argue. The picture will not become a cash hit, many will spit. However, her cult status is provided in advance. This movie will not see every year.

"Border" - one of the most unexpected films in the history of cinema. Its genre specificity denies any classification: we have a study of morals, social satire, a love story, a grim tale, an absurd comedy, a thriller about pedophiles. Now intrigued readers can remember the name of the picture and stop reading the text if they are afraid of spoilers. If you feel comfortable with spoilers or are simply afraid of surprises that a similar movie can bring, read on.

The first interesting detail - the appearance of Tina, played disfigured beyond recognition by the beautiful Swedish actress Eva Melander. Usually, the ugly (in the usual sense) characters in the humanistic author's cinema are introduced to convey the simple idea of the equality of all people, no matter how they look, and how immoral to judge by appearance. This idea lies at the heart of many paintings, from "Freaks" to "The Elephant Man", although they also have a hidden thirst to satisfy the curiosity of the viewer who dreams of seeing a frick on the screen, like in a circus once. There is such a picture in the current Cannes competition: the Egyptian "Doomsday" is a sentimental road movie about a leper who seeks for his family, played by an actor who is truly sick with leprosy. Of course, the critics applaud her, touched by each other.

The case of "Border" is not just another, but the opposite. The politically correct world does not separate Tina from others, which does not save her from the self-perception of the "other", a stranger to others. Under the yoke of this feeling, she lived all her life. The phenomenon of Vore (colorful Finn Eero Milonoff) becomes a revelation for her: it turns out, it was possible not to hide his “I” from the world. Vore does not hesitate to look, even bare her - he likes it when people recoil from him. He is afraid of being struck by lightning, without words he finds mutual understanding with wild animals, eats raw insects. Tina tries to act like him - and suddenly feels happy, for the first time in her life. Border is a manifesto in which the only secret of intoxicating personal freedom is hidden. First of all, freedom from standardization, from the rules and attitudes imposed by society.

This state of affairs opens to the middle of the picture. However, experts on the Scandinavian culture will be guessed much earlier. Tina and Vore are not people. They are trolls. Disappearing minority, practically exterminated by people. Their parents are killed, tails docked in early childhood. They have only two possible ways: painful assimilation or a doomed struggle for identity is a dilemma, like two drops of water resembling the main X-Men conflict. Existing on the border of the norm and abnormality Tina - for the first option, the anarchist Vore - for the second. Now, when they miraculously met and came together, everyone dreams to convince the other.

John Ajvide Lindqvist, "Swedish Stephen King", bases the picture on the novel which most know from the novel “Let the Right One In” and his two screen versions. The vampires in that book were a brilliant metaphor for teenage alienation from the adult world. Trolls, of course, also should not be understood literally, no matter how naturalistic their life and physiology were shown in the film. The point is that the complete adaptation of nature - including one's own - is impossible by definition. You either destroy nature, or put up with it. "Antichrist" Lars von Trier, with whom the film has a lot in common, also said this. A terrible leitmotiv with a group of pedophiles abducting and raping not even children but infants also recalls Trier. Unlike Tina with Vore, human monsters are attractive, well dressed and combed - but this does not prevent them from performing horrible acts and does not help to suppress their nature.

https://youtu.be/t2rsXR4cjrw[Border Trailer #1 (2018) | Movieclips Indie](https://youtu.be/t2rsXR4cjrw)

Using the soundtrack and soundtrack, impeccable suspense in drama, frightening organics of actors: everything says that Ali Abbasi is the author of a rare talent. His gift will never be fully appreciated, either at festivals (they do not like horror too much here), or at the box office (the picture is too peculiar). However, he seems to be going to live with it and continue to make their own unique films. Just like a troll.

The illustrations are used in agreement with the Depositphotos photobank

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