Lore and disorder
BORDER Scandinavian folklore meets Nordic noir in Ali Abbasi’s jaw-dropper…
I When I go to movies, I want to know everything,” declares Iranian-Swedish writer-director Ali Abbasi. “I read the plot in advance. I read about the actors. I want to know every detail.” Fair enough. But in the case of Abbasi’s new movie, Border, the less you know the better. Based on a novella by John Ajvide Lindqvist (of Let The Right One In fame), this mix of Norse mythology, supernatural horror, romance, magic realism and social drama is best left unspoiled.
Suffice to say that Tina (Eva Melander) works as a customs officer in a Swedish coastal town. She has an uncanny sense of smell, allowing her to root out a person’s fear and guilt. She also has a wide nose, crooked teeth, mottled skin and a misshapen forehead that gives her an almost Neanderthal appearance. Then there’s that weird scar at the base of her spine. Who
– or exactly what – is she?
After Tina meets Vore (Eero Milonoff), who is similarly disfigured, she begins to find answers and the companionship this outsider has so longed for. “In a way it’s a formula movie,” shrugs Abbasi. “It’s basically a coming-of-age story with elements of superhero movies. And this was not
my intention, to be totally honest with you. It’s very Hollywood in its storytelling. But I understand there are some surprises and twists and turns.”
For both actors, the transformations were arduous. They each gained 20 kilos, then every day spent four hours in the make-up chair as their prosthetics were applied. “They were doing a day’s job before we started doing the shoot, which was hardcore,” says Abbasi, who admits the production “totally underestimated” the impact these hours would have on the shooting schedule. “Every day we were shooting later and later. It was like this crazy ‘chasing’ the sun.”
As the lead, Melander suffered the most. “It was almost like she got new skin or a face transplant,” says Abbasi. “It was a very big thing on her face. I think the only features she had left that were her own were her mouth and her eyes. Everything else was prosthetics, one way or the other, which made her expression very different from what she was used to.”
If Border is a richly allegorical fairytale about the fear of the other, it doesn’t hold back on contemporary social evils either. In particular, Abbasi expanded the story with a subplot about Tina hunting out a paedophile ring. “I would say our version is darker and more bleak than the original story,” says Abbasi. “It’s more dangerous.” And whatever he says, there’s nothing formulaic about it whatsoever.