Granica

An honest, bizarre festival film, combining dark Scandinavian crime and bestial romance with fantasy mythology. Despite many WTF moments, the film is clearly rooted in our reality and based on multi-layered motifs reflecting current world events, especially regarding the issue of gender and sexual identity and approaches to minorities in society. This genre mix is directed with a firm hand, but in parts it deserves a brisker pace. Nevertheless, its originality, courage and uniqueness are definitely appreciated. And the great masks and acting performances of both title characters. (08.07.2018)

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)

Border has a detective storyline that strays into festival-movie bizarreness with diverse thoughtgerms. Despite what seems like elements of fantasy, we remain firmly rooted in reality, which makes it all the more frightening and disturbing. The creator calls it “Nordic realism”. It is a psychological, physical and, in some places, perhaps even repulsive experience for some, but always socially reflective and comrehensible from all angles. Plus, there’s some comic relief, which is probably deliberate, but I’m not sure. [Cannes] (10.05.2018)

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)

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)