Movie Review - Border (Gräns)

This film was the official submission from Sweden to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. It didn't make the December shortlist. It won "Un Certain Regard" at the 71st Cannes Film Festival where it premiered. It was nominated for four European Film Awards, including Best Film. It won a visual effects award there. The effects were noted as being "subtle and invisible." I'm not sure to what the European Film Awards are referring, but this movie doesn't seem to have many opportunities for visual effects. The only obvious opportunities are effects that don't feel subtle or invisible at all. The European Film Awards also note that the effects are "seamless." The film feels more dependent on something else, which isn't subtle or invisible but could be labeled as seamless.

This film didn't make the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, but it did make the shortlist for Makeup and Hairstyling, and it could be argued that this film is dependent on that. When it comes to makeup, the Academy normally awards period pieces like royal dramas or biopics of famous people. It also awards monster movies. Lately, some action and comic-book movies have been thrown into the mix, but typically the Academy loves it when an actor has been completely and believably transformed. Within the past 20 or 30 years, we've seen the Oscars love it when an actress makes herself "ugly" as it were. The Makeup and Hairstyling nominations aren't always reflective of those actresses, but that certainly wouldn't be the case here.

Unfortunately, this feature is up against Black Panther, which has an array of Afro-futurism, Bohemian Rhapsody, which had Rami Malek transform into Freddie Mercury, Mary Queen of Scots, which had Saoirse Ronan transform into the titular royal, Stan & Ollie, which had John C. Reilly transform into Oliver Hardy, Suspiria, which transformed Tilda Swinton into three people, and Vice, which transformed Christian Bale into Dick Cheney. This film also involves two actors being transformed into something else and being made ugly, but what's working against this film is that of all the aforementioned films, this one was the least seen. It made the least of all the others in the box office. It didn't make as much money, even compared to similar foreign-language films. I wouldn't be surprised therefore if this film doesn't get that "Makeup and Hairstyling" nomination.

Eva Melander stars as Tina, a customs agent who seemingly works at an airport. Her job is to stand at a gate or hallway where people are presumably getting off or possibly getting on a plane. She's not at the typical station with a metal detector or body scanner. In fact, she and her partner simply stand along the wall of the hallway and watch people walk past. Tina uses her nose like a bloodhound. Occasionally, she can sniff something in or on one of the people walking. She then pulls them aside to have that person searched. Every time she does, it usually turns out that the person is sneaking or smuggling some kind of contraband.

Other than these criminals or smugglers, no one points out the fact that she has what could be considered facial deformities, as well as dental issues. What she has isn't exactly deformities that seemingly couldn't be fixed with plastic surgery or possibly weight-loss to normalize her. Yet, what she does have could be compared to a look approximating a neanderthal or cro-magnon. She has other deformities that we can't see. Because of which, doctors have led her to think that she can't have children.

Eero Milonoff co-stars as Vore, a drifter of sorts. He passes by Tina one day and she suspects him of smuggling something. It turns out that he has an interest in insect husbandry or insect farming. He seemingly has the same deformity as Tina, at least on his face. He has the same neanderthal look. He also seems to have a super sense of smell too. He tells her that he's staying at a nearby hotel. She then seeks him out and he begins to entice her with assurances that make her feel normal or accepted. He even starts to seduce her overtly.

All of this deals with themes of otherism, as well as beauty being in the eye of the beholder. There's also queer themes of gender nonconforming and even fluid sexuality. Without spoiling the film too much, it also incorporates a kind of queer representation that isn't often represented. It incorporates representation of intersex people. It's probably not representation that intersex people would like, but it could echo or underline the outcast feeling that intersex people might feel. It might be off-putting to equate the bodily differences or gender expressions with facial deformities. However, director and co-writer Ali Abbasi apparently wanted to underscore that equation, unless he simply wanted to be true to the source material.

Abbasi did take some liberties. He did make some additions to the source material. He and his co-writers adapted the short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist whose debut novel Let the Right One In was also adapted into a film. In fact, it was adapted into two, one in Swedish and one in English. Lindqvist's debut involved supernatural elements. His short story here also features supernatural elements, as it is revealed that Tina and Vore are not deformed but actually fantastical creatures.

Unfortunately, that supernatural element is used to build up what I consider to be a straw man argument. What it does is build-up what could be considered a comic-book villain and scenario that seeks to make things more icky, more visceral than really all that thoughtful. The film tries to make the argument that all humans are evil or in fact they're all pedophiles. The ending is meant to refute that assertion, but the ending isn't enough in my mind to refute what the movie spends the majority of its running time asserting.

Rated R for graphic nudity, sexual content, a bloody violent image and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 50 mins.

In select cities, including DC and New York.