Border (Gräns)

This screening took place on Friday, February 8, 2019 at 10:00 pmYukon Arts Centre

At a ferry-port customs checkpoint, Tina (Eva Melander) is one of many polyester-uniformed guards standing watch. Short, with her features broadened and blunted by a congenital genetic condition, and one of many in her polyester uniform, she blends into near invisibility, a cog in the system. During the day, she keeps a close eye on travelers; off the job, she has a small place surrounded by primal forest and a normal life of family, friends and work right down to her ailing dad and her indifferent dog-trainer live-in boyfriend.

The only thing exceptional about Tina's work is how exceptional she is at it; in a way even she can't quite explain, Tina can literally smell guilt, fear and fury seeping off of some travelers, and her results speak for themselves. Mostly she detects booze-smugglers and other minor transgressors, but two separate travelers give off clouds of strange scent that give her reason to look closer: One is a suit-clad smoothie found to be carrying a cache of child pornography, the other is a smiling, swaggering rambler named Vore (Eero Milonoff) whose silent ways and familiar-strange features pull Tina closer.

As Tina's strange skill and determination see her helping the police work up the chain of sex criminals she caught a small link of at the terminal, she has to go to the grey city streets and 'perfect IKEA apartments' of her suspects. Back at her home, in the woods, wild and waters, she and Vore talk and grow intertwined, as he reveals more and more secrets about his life even as he confounds and confuses her. He has many of the same scars as her, knows more about her past in some ways than she does, and soon Tina has to decide just how much of her life she's willing to upend in the name of belonging. When the true nature of the case Tina's working and the lies about her childhood past she's uncovering lead towards friends and family, Tina will discover -- for herself -- who she truly is.

Viewer Discretion Advised: some sexual content, graphic nudity, a bloody violent image, and language. Official Selection: 2018 Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard Award) 2018 Telluride Film Festival 2018 Toronto International Film Festival