Telluride at Dartmouth Film: "Border"
A genre-bending Nordic spin on the Ugly Duckling tale evolves into a surprisingly humanist, artful love story.
In the riveting first scene, Tina (Eva Melander), a troll-like customs officer, exhibits her preternatural sense of smell, detecting a child-porn smuggler. This poignant fairy tale then takes a wonderfully disconcerting leap. Tina meets Vore (Eero Milonoff), who, despite similar physical irregularities, insists—with outlandish comic urgency—on their beauty. Swedish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi adapted the ingenious script from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s (Let The Right One In) novella, and he skillfully blends passionately erotic and supernatural elements with thinly veiled commentary about the status of outsiders in today’s Sweden. It’s filled with surprises, absurdity and soulful moments. But it’s Melander’s stunningly engaging performance that makes this Cannes winner a mesmerizing experience. (Sweden, subtitled, 2018, 101m) Courtesy of Neon
