Na fronteira

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)

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)

LGBTT..? Nordic noir, supernatural horror, and realism—both magical and social—layered onto a love story and a quest for identity as part of a minority. Ali Abbasi, trolling the audience, designed it this way because practically anything can follow a love story, but it must be strong enough to support it. It’s a pity that the sun didn’t come out during the erotic scene; if it had been a rock, it would have made it even more intense. (18/12/2023)

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)