‘Border’: Trolls Get Their Due In Strange, But Touching Swedish Drama [Cannes Review]

Bashing skulls, killing hobbits, or living under bridges, trolls aren’t generally afforded much empathy in cinema let alone in form of storytelling, but these mythical, cave-dwelling creatures receive a profoundly humane touch in the eccentric, oddly-touching and genre-bending fairytale “Border” (“Gräns”) from Iranian-born, Swedish-based filmmaker Ali Abbasi.

Co-written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of Swedish vampire movie “Let The Right One In,” the peculiar drama, replete with idiosyncratic Scandinavian sensibilities, recently won the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. And not for its ordinariness, because when was the last time trolls received their own erotic thriller? Ready for hot troll sex? Better prepare yourself for something romantic, subversive and unpredictable.

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A classification-defying narrative with elements of Nordic folklore, supernatural horror, social realism, noir and romance, the baffling and entertaining “Border” centers on the story of Tina (Eva Melander), an unusual-looking female border guard with a strange talent for smelling human emotions, smugglers, pedophiles and various criminal behaviors (if she were racist, she’d be Trump’s most prized possession).

Frustrated with her ugly, societal-outlier looks, Tina’s world is upended when she meets a mysterious, yet suspicious man with a smell that confounds her detection. Appearing like a female version of herself, Vore (Eero Milonoff) becomes the man of her dreams, which is unfortunate considering he’s a rather an evil fellow. Vore perceives humans as scum, a morally repellent species he’d kill given half the chance. But through her affections for Vore, Tina is forced to face moral quandaries for humankind and confront disconcerting insights about herself.

READ MORE: A Customs Officer Can Sniff Out Anything In First Clip From Upcoming Cannes Selection “Border” [Exclusive]

“Border” sounds absurd and comical, but the movie’s played like straight realism. The trolls look radically different than anyone else, but the film tries to pay as little attention as possible to their abnormal features, and they integrate, quite realistically with civilized society.

What Abbassi cleverly does with Tina and Vore, is quietly test the audience’s tolerance for the inherent differences in these repulsive beings, and triumphs with the sympathy he engenders without tricks or manipulation. Not much is known about Tina, but while living with a hippie-looking human whose sexual advances she continually rejects, her sense of alienation and dissatisfaction is evident. When she meets her prince — er — charming, Tina discovers a sexual awakening within, which leads to one of the ugliest sex scenes in recent movie history.

Covered in hideous makeup, Melander’s facial expressions are borderline poetic, inventing a body language that feels genuinely unique. Shot in grayish weather, where the Nordic sun rarely shines, the drama’s ashen aesthetic transforms the film into a kind of noir, consumed with a combination of sex and violence. Body-horror-ish influences even recall David Cronenberg and even pre-“Heavenly Creatures“-era Peter Jackson (“Bad Taste,” “Meet The Feebles,” “Braindead“).

A gripping drama that rests on the strength of its two lead’s performances, the movie’s social and political subtexts make eloquent parallels to the world’s growing antipathy and intolerance for immigrants and refugees. Unique, unforgettable and cathartic, “Border” is an oddball, but poignant cult classic in the making. Abbasi’s sincerity wisely avoids caricature and mocking his marginalized characters and in doing so he crafts a surprisingly humanist and artful story of love for the diminished and dismissed outsiders of the world. [B+]

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