As its title suggests, Border blurs boundaries. The story begins at a literal border β a Swedish ferry terminal β and proceeds to dismantle more abstract ones: between human and animal, male and female, civilised and primal, right and wrong, possibly sublime and ridiculous. In terms of genre, too, it straddles Nordic noir, outsider romance and folk fantasy. And it features what could well be the weirdest sex scene in the history of cinema.
Our heroine is Tina, a customs officer who immediately seems odd. Her features are almost Neanderthal, with a heavy brow and protruding teeth. Played by Swedish actor Eva Melander under a layer of facial prosthetics , Tina is a lonely misfit, more at home in the natural world than the human one.
She has the ability to sniff out contraband at the border: smuggled alcohol, or, in one pivotal instance, a memory card containing child pornography. Things take a turn when an equally Neanderthal-looking stranger named Vore Finnish actor Eero Milonoff passes through the border one day. They begin kissing. It becomes more like an animalistic mating ritual, with grunting and biting. When they take their trousers down, Tina is astounded to see a strange, slender penis grow from her own crotch.
The rest comes naturally. Their lovemaking is wild, but also tender and emotional. Or rather, what, though it would be a crime to spoil that particular revelation.
And what would be the parts you could take away and still call it a human being? She wants to have her identity and respect, and she feels lonely. Such a unique proposition leaves one grasping for comparisons. He felt a certain affinity with Lindqvist, he says. Border was originally a short story. The author likes to insert twists into the mythology. It is perhaps unsurprising that Abbasi felt a particular connection to Border, as an Iranian man living in Scandinavia.
