Winner of the Un Certain Regard award at last year’s Cannes, and an Oscar nominee for Makeup and Hairstyling, Ali Abbasi’s Border arrives on MUBI UK as a landmark title. Aside from streaming on the subscription service, Border is MUBI’s first release – in conjunction with distributor Modern Films, who also released it in cinemas – to receive a Blu-ray and DVD release in the UK. High-profile MUBI-distributed titles Suspiria and Under the Silver Lake are due to follow later this year, although without the co-deal with Modern Films.
The Swedish film is based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In), who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Abbasi and Isabella Eklöf. A curious blend of romance, fantasy, realism and magical realism, Border sees Tina (Eva Melander), a customs officer with the ability to smell fear, develop an attraction to an odd traveller, Vore (Eero Milonoff), while aiding a police investigation. An outsider all her life due to her physical features, Tina learns from Vore that her own animal-like appearance may be because she’s a species that isn’t actually human.
We sit down with the Iranian-Danish director to discuss bringing the unique tale to the screen…
Read Write Hand 