Na fronteira

Um esquema policial, inclinado pelo bizarro do festival com uma variedade de ideias a surgir. Apesar dos aparentes elementos de fantasia, permanecemos firmemente na realidade — e por isso é mais assustador e perturbador. O autor chama-o «Nordic realism». Uma experiência psicológica, física, por vezes talvez até repulsiva para alguns, mas sempre socialmente refletiva e compreensível de todos os ângulos. E com um toque do humor leve — se for intencional. Não tenho a certeza. [Cannes] (10/05/2018)

I caught up with this Scandinavian oddity and to my surprise it's decent and recommendable. The story focuses on Tina, who looks weird and is quite creepy, her life is not worth much and she works as a customs officer at an airport. But she has specially developed olfactory abilities and she can smell fear, guilt and other emotions from people, and thanks to that she catches some pedophiles. Her life changes, when she meets Vore, who has a similarly repulsive appearance, and they begin a sort of bizarre romance (the sex scene with them is very repulsive indeed). The film mixes multiple genres, it's interwoven with Norse mythology, it manages to shock (it gets quite intense at the end), and the whole thing is so strange, interesting and novel that I really enjoyed it. Scandinavian weirdness with all the trimmings. 7/10. (29/03/2024)

It’s important you find out the least possible about this film prior to watching it. Knowing the background of the characters in advance would definitely ruin the surprises in store for you. With its raw repulsive scenes and slow tempo, Border offers a really bizarre and grim experience that will put off more viewers than it will gain. The filming is subtle and the acting performance, splendid (kudos to the central duo of actors). That being said, a swifter pace of the storyline wouldn’t hurt. My appreciation is scaled down due to the long-winded ending, yet I enjoyed the film’s singularity. [KVIFF 2018] (08/07/2018)

Um bizarro festival honorável, combinando o crime escandinavo obscuro e o romance bestial com a mitologia da fantasia, que apesar de muitos momentos de WTF está sem dúvidas enraizado na nossa realidade e fundamentado em temas multifacetados que refletir os acontecimentos atuais no mundo, especialmente no que diz respeito à questão do género e da identidade sexual e à atitude para com as minorias na sociedade. A mistura do género, dirigida com uma mão firme, poderia ter beneficiado de um ritmo mais acelerado em alguns lugares, mas a originalidade, a coragem e a alteridade são definitivamente apreciadas. Assim como as grandes maquilhagens e atuações dos dois personagens principais. (08/07/2018)

Border is one of the most bizarre pieces I've seen recently. The weirdest genre mash-up you could ever hope for. A Scandinavian fairy tale about two creatures in love at the intersection of the human and supernatural worlds, with a detective plot and a pervasive critique of human society. The makeup artists did a really good and frighteningly convincing job creating one of the most unattractive couples in film history. Also interesting was the concept of troll mythology, which made for more than one WTF moment. It's definitely a noteworthy film, and I can understand any rating for it. (11/04/2020)

My first impressions of the film were very mixed. Interesting story, interesting characters, very beautiful style, but something was missing. After revealing important insights to everything that happens to the two main characters, my experience of the film was strong. The fact that we don't know these facts from the beginning of the film is tremendously cool, because the film allows you to wake up your thoughts and experience Tina's story through her eyes - in not knowing. I give tremendous praise to the film's conclusion - or rather, the metaphorical last third of the film - for its engaging take on an ordinary story. (28/08/2023)