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Ali Abbasi's Border (2018) is having its exclusive online premiere on Mubi in the United Kingdom. It is showing from July 12 – August 10, 2019.Transcendence is a corporeal mechanism, as it dwells on the slim border dividing human from inhuman. Precisely this convergence of carnality and affect is what Ali Abbasi’s second feature film, Border (2018), touches upon. Tina (Eva Melander) is apathetic to the pleasures of society and relationships, yet she possesses an uncanny gift: to smell what people are feeling. Her compartmentalized being is stirred when she meets Vore (Eero Milonoff), their vertiginous infatuation reminiscing the Platonic myth of the androgyne: two souls in a single body. The truth, however, is far more unchaste. In Tina’s world, emotions acquire smell, aggression and passion become equally associated with sex, exacerbated by Nature’s sheltering landscapes. Her character is more intimate with the forest, than with people, and, for once, animalistic behavior is not condemned.

Border (Gräns) Neon Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Ali Abbasi Screenwriter: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Ali Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf, based on a story by John Ajvide Lindqvist Cast: Eva Melander, Eero Milonoff, Jörgen Thorsson, Ann Petren, Sten Ljunggren Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 10/18/18 Opens: October 26, 2018 People are not who they seem. This is […]

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A Swedish customs officer with a special talent for detecting contraband must ultimately choose between good and evil in the idiosyncratic thriller “Border,” an exciting, intelligent mix of romance, Nordic noir, social realism, and supernatural horror that defies and subverts genre conventions. Destined to be a cult classic, this absorbing second feature from Iran-born, Denmark-based director Ali Abbasi is based on a short story by “Let The Right One In” author John Ajvide Lindqvist, whose oeuvre and fandom is comparable to that of Stephen King and Anne Rice. Lindqvist also co-wrote the screenplay along with Abbasi and his Danish Film School colleague Isabella Eklöf. Neon has already snapped up the North American rights; other territories are going fast.

It’s almost impossible to write about “Border” without some spoilers, so those who want to preserve the thrill of discovery may want to stop reading here. The underlying themes are common...

Ali Abbasi’s Border could be one of the most bonkers films of the festival so far. It is certainly surprising and difficult to write about without giving too much away. Whatever else it is, it is unmissable.

The story revolves around Tina (Eva Melander), an odd-looking woman – think the Beast in the Beauty and the Beast 1980s TV show – who works as a border guard at a ferry port in Sweden. We first see her playing with an insect outside work. Tina looks a little unusual and she has an unusual talent: that of sniffing out miscreants. We see her nose twitching and it’s only a matter of time before she reveals what the perp has been smuggling in. Her animal-like traits are evident when she arrives home. Rather than putting on boots to go for a walk, we watch her traipsing through the wood, mulching down the moss with her bare feet.