Weird romance “Border” wins Un Certain Regard at Cannes

By Robin Pomeroy and Sarah Mills

CANNES, France (Reuters) – An unusual Scandinavian movie about a relationship between two outsiders that Variety said was “destined to be a cult classic”, won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes on Friday.

Directed by Iranian-born Ali Abbasi and co-written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of Swedish vampire movie “Let the Right One In”, “Border” entertained and baffled audiences at the festival which closes on Saturday.

It is the story of Tina, a strange-looking Swedish customs officer who finds herself drawn to a similarly odd man, Vore, and discovers an uncomfortable truth about her own identity.

Variety critic Alissa Simon called it an “exciting, intelligent mix of romance, Nordic noir, social realism and supernatural horror that defies and subverts genre conventions”.

Lead actress Eva Melander said: “It’s a very unpredictable story and people watching it are really touched by it. They go out from the cinema and they kind of forget their mobile phone and wonder: ‘What’s this and what did I just see?'”

Un Certain Regard is the second-tier competition at Cannes, which closes on Saturday with the award of the Palme d’Or and other prizes for the films in the main selection.

Among the other Un Certain Regard winners were Belgian actor Victor Polster, who won Best Performance for his role as a transgender teenage girl’s quest to become a professional ballerina in “Girl”.

(This version of the story corrects the name of the winner of Best Perfomance in the final paragraph.)

(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Catherine Evans)