![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: Border (Gräns) (2018)
What an interesting movie. I thought this movie handled both the supernatural aspect of it in a really fascinating and immersive way. The underlying messages were simple, but I think that worked well in the context of the movie.
I would recommend this as an interesting drama movie set in a supernatural/fantasy backdrop.
Spoilers.
I'm going to refer to Tina as "she" and Vore as "he" because that's how they're socialized in human society. I'm not sure if it's proper to call Tina "he" and Vore "she" because though Vore is technically the one who would give birth, designating pronouns based on who gives birth is also a very human thing.
Story
Tina worked as a border crossing guard who had a knack for sensing suspicious people. She lived in a secluded house with her boyfriend Roland, though she and Roland were barely ever intimate. Tina's father was living in a long term care home for the elderly. The movie followed two story lines that eventually converged into one.
One was relating to her job at the border crossing. Since she was able to sense suspicious happenings, she was put on a team to track down child porn distributors.
The second story line was relating to a new friend she met called Vore. Vore had the same odd appearance as she did, and there was just something about him that she was drawn to.
It was revealed that Tina and Vore were not human, but actually trolls, which explained their similar physical traits, as well as traits that just weren't very human. It was revealed that Vore had what humans would say was female genitalia, and vice versa for Tina. In addition, both Tina and Vore had scars on their back from having their tails cut off. To be completely honest, I found information about troll reproduction to be really interesting, and an immersive way into showing us how trolls live in a society that don't recognize their physical differences. Vore, as the egg carrier, would give birth to unfertilized eggs (kind of like periods for female humans I guess). Otherwise, as trolls, Vore and Tina preferred a way of life that was more in touch with nature. They enjoyed the outdoors, enjoyed eating maggots and bugs which was considered "gross" by humans, etc. They also shared their fear of thunder and lightning, which was a pretty tender moment. Vore opened up a whole new world to Tina.
The stories converged when one of the men responsible for creating child porn was killed by Vore. Tina confronted Vore, who revealed that he was the child trafficker. He would kidnap human children and replace them with his unfertilized egg who would not live long. He took advantage of the human folk belief in changeling children, which were unwanted children of supernatural creatures; the supernatural creatures would kidnap human children and leave those unwanted children behind.
Vore's reason for trafficking babies was his hatred for humans, who had tortured and experimented on his parents. This was very shocking to Tina, who'd adapted to human life relatively well, having a job and a house. In any case, she couldn't let Vore put babies in danger, and she led the authorities to Vore. However, Vore escaped after being arrested.
Tina confronted her adopted father about her true parentage, and he revealed that he had worked at a psychiatric hospital where a lot of trolls were tortured and experimented on. Her parents had died, but he'd volunteered to take care of Tina, whose real name was Reva.
At the end of the movie, Tina was sent a package, with a troll baby and a postcard from Finland. It was implied that the baby was Vore and Tina's baby, and that Vore had made his way to the group of trolls who were living in Finland. Tina fed the baby a bug, which seemed to please the baby. I think this suggests that Tina would raise this child to be in touch with their troll heritage.
The story itself was pretty simple and straightforward. I think where the movie shone was how it expanded on troll culture and troll physiology. It really immersed us into Vore and Tina's world, and showed us how they didn't fit in in this human-centric world.
Production
The direction style was pretty down to earth. We folled Tina in her everyday life, as she went to work and went home, etc. I thought it was a really interesting way of introducing us to the whole new world of troll culture.
Whereas Tina struggled to fit in before, she was starting to find activites that genuinely gave her joy, such as eating bugs, running in the wild, spending time in the lake, etc. And as mentioned, her fear of lightning and thunder was shared with Vore, and for once, she met somebody who felt the same way as her.
I think a lot of people found troll intimacy really weird, but I thought it was nice. It's weird to us, but it was clearly a big step for Tina, who'd never been able to feel intimate with another person. I say intimacy because I'm not just talking about the sex scene. I'm also talking about Tina and Vore just doing stuff. We saw that when Tina, Vore, and Roland were having dinner, Tina and Vore were eating in the same way, and I think Tina's never really had someone on her side like that before.
Characters
Tina/Reva
Tina was our main character. It was revealed that she was born in the psychiatric hospital where the trolls live, and originally had the name Reva. After her parents died, she was taken in by her father and raised as a human. Unfortunately, she suffered a lot of bullying, but she mostly internalized it. We saw that she only expressed her anger about it at the end, when she confronted her father about lying to her about her heritage.
Tina's acute senses made her great at her job, and I think that her coworkers at least respected her for that. Her coworkers were never really passive aggressive towards her, and Agneta even asked Tina to help her with finding the child porn distributors.
Vore was clearly a very strange guy, but Tina couldn't help but be drawn to him. He introduced her to new habits like eating bugs. They were attracted to each other, and when Tina expressed discomfort with her body, Vore told her not to listen to the humans and that she was perfect as she was. It was only after they had sex that Vore told Tina that she was actually a troll, and I think that's when things started to fall in place for Tina. She realized that she didn't have to live like a human, she could do all those things that trolls liked because she was a troll. She didn't have to have a boyfriend just because humans said she had to, and she kicked him out.
That being said, she had a strong sense of empathy for the humans, having lived among them for so long, and so she didn't have the same views of troll supremacy as Vore did.
When Tina found out that Vore was the child trafficker, she had to come to terms with her views on humans as a troll. She knew she was not one of them now, but what did that mean for her? What was she going to do now? Would she hurt the humans for having hurt the trolls?
Tina is a kind person, but part of it is likely because there have been humans who were kind to her. Though her father wasn't perfect, he tried his best to love her. Her neighbours Esther and Stefan seemed pretty friendly too. Though she liked being a troll, she recognized that there were good humans.
By the end of the movie, Tina got a little bit of a closure from her father. He'd tried to avoid the question before, but he decided to own up and come clean. Of course, Tina wasn't really happy with him for hiding her parentage her whole life. She went to the cemetery where her parents were buried to find out more about herself and the trolls. And when Vore sent their baby to Tina, I think she saw this as a chance to reconnect with her troll side. She couldn't do anything about not having grown up a troll, but she was trying to effect change on the next generation of trolls.
Vore
Vore was a troll who was far more in touch with his troll side. He introduced Tina to the troll life, which was great for her, as she learned that her body and her habits weren't "abnormal," that was how she was meant to be.
Over time, we came to see that Vore also had extreme ideas on humans. He grew up in orphanages and did not have a good time there. It's not clear when he found out that he was a troll, but nevertheless, not having a single human who cared for you would have cemented his beliefs that all humans deserved to be hurt.
It was revealed that Vore was the child trafficker. He claimed that humans were going to hurt their own anyway, he was just helping them do something they were already going to do. He'd killed Patrick, the child trafficker, in order to silence him.
Looking back, the scene in which Vore met Esther and her baby became a lot more sinister. Tina had shown difficulty in handling the baby but Vore had cooed at the baby. I had thought that maybe Vore was just better with babies, but now I knew that it was an act, that he didn't care for the baby at all.
At the end of the movie, Vore maintained his views of troll superiority. He escaped from arrest, and it's suggested that he finally made his way to the troll community in Finland. Perhaps it was better for him to live among other trolls, so that he wouldn't further hurt innocent humans.
Tina's father
Tina's father raised Tina to be a human child. He worked at a psychiatric hospital where trolls were tortured and experimented on, and yet he showed Tina love in a way that he thought was appropriate. Raising her to believe she was human likely was not the best course of action, but he also probably didn't know better.
Since Tina was raised believing she was human, she underwent lots of bullying, especially relating to her appearance. And since her body was so different from that of a human woman's, she felt inadequate too.
We saw that Tina's father shut down when Tina first confronted him about the truth. But he later went to Tina to explain everything. Tina wasn't happy, because he'd still lied to her for her entire life. But I think that telling her the truth opens the door to possible reconciliation in the future.
Roland
Roland was Tina's boyfriend, but they really lived a lot more like roommates. At the beginning, Tina's father showed concern that Roland was maybe taking advantage of her (because she had a house). At first, I really thought that they were just roommates, until that time Roland tried to get her to have sex and she refused him.
Roland was really into dogs, and he was always going to dog competitions and such. He was weird out by Vore, and would tell Tina that he didn't like that he was living in the lodge.
Later on, when Tina started to gain confidence in her own skin, she kicked Roland out, recognizing that she didn't like him at all.
Themes
Trolls vs. Humans
I can't say that either of Vore or Tina were right or wrong in their views of trolls vs. humans. Vore was raised in orphanages where he struggled to fit in, and during the movie, we saw that he really embraced his troll side, often eating like a troll, etc. He hated humans a lot, and saw his work as a way to destroy them. On the other hand, Tina was raised in a family. Her dad did have his flaws, but from the beginning of the movie, I think we could assume that he had at least nurtured a good relationship with his adopted daughter. In addition, Tina had learned to fit in in society, having a job and friends. That being said, we can't ignore the fact that Tina was still bullied for her troll habits. She'd experienced a lot of bullying as a child, and was still bullied for being ugly (such as by the guy at the border who got his liquor confiscated).
It was easy for Vore to hate humans as none were ever kind to him, whereas Tina was straddling the line. She'd suffered a lot under humans, but she'd also met some kind humans. For example, Esther and Stefan were kind to her, and she definitely didn't think that they deserved to have their baby kidnapped and abused, though Vore did kidnap their baby in the end.
Good vs. evil
In their final conversation, Tina said she didn't want to be evil. Vore took that to mean that Tina wanted to be a human, but Tina questioned whether compassion was restricted to humans.
It showed flaws in Vore's thinking, as he believed that the only way trolls could "get even" with humans was to exact pain. Perhaps he was correct if we were strictly talking abotu vengeance. But what good does hurting humans do for trolls?
As for Tina, she was less concerned with trolls as a race, and she just wanted to live as a good person who was kind.
Otherness
This movie did a really good job in showing us the total otherness of trolls, from their eating and entertainment habits, to their physiology. The movie did a really good job in showing us how human society can be difficult for people who don't exactly fit in a certain mold.
I can definitely see people drawing parallels between the trolls and other marginalized groups, whether it's people from other ethnic groups, LGBT people, neurodivergent people, etc.
Border
The title can refer to a few things. Of course, Tina is a border crossing guard, so that's a more literal way of interpreting the title. In addition, Tina straddles the border between humans and trolls. She's a troll, but she's become accustomed to living as a human. Which side does she choose? Does she need to choose a side?
Overall
Really interesting movie. It's mellow but still really powerful. I can see why some people might be uncomfortable with the level of detail we got into the trolls' lives, but I really liked it. It really helped me to sympathize with Tina as she learned about herself.
I also liked that the end acknowledged that there is no one right way to approach such problems. For Tina, she wanted to continue living among humans, but she would still explore her troll side through raising her baby. As for Vore, it was more comfortable for him to live with other trolls.
I would recommend this as an interesting drama movie set in a supernatural/fantasy backdrop.
Spoilers.
I'm going to refer to Tina as "she" and Vore as "he" because that's how they're socialized in human society. I'm not sure if it's proper to call Tina "he" and Vore "she" because though Vore is technically the one who would give birth, designating pronouns based on who gives birth is also a very human thing.
Story
Tina worked as a border crossing guard who had a knack for sensing suspicious people. She lived in a secluded house with her boyfriend Roland, though she and Roland were barely ever intimate. Tina's father was living in a long term care home for the elderly. The movie followed two story lines that eventually converged into one.
One was relating to her job at the border crossing. Since she was able to sense suspicious happenings, she was put on a team to track down child porn distributors.
The second story line was relating to a new friend she met called Vore. Vore had the same odd appearance as she did, and there was just something about him that she was drawn to.
It was revealed that Tina and Vore were not human, but actually trolls, which explained their similar physical traits, as well as traits that just weren't very human. It was revealed that Vore had what humans would say was female genitalia, and vice versa for Tina. In addition, both Tina and Vore had scars on their back from having their tails cut off. To be completely honest, I found information about troll reproduction to be really interesting, and an immersive way into showing us how trolls live in a society that don't recognize their physical differences. Vore, as the egg carrier, would give birth to unfertilized eggs (kind of like periods for female humans I guess). Otherwise, as trolls, Vore and Tina preferred a way of life that was more in touch with nature. They enjoyed the outdoors, enjoyed eating maggots and bugs which was considered "gross" by humans, etc. They also shared their fear of thunder and lightning, which was a pretty tender moment. Vore opened up a whole new world to Tina.
The stories converged when one of the men responsible for creating child porn was killed by Vore. Tina confronted Vore, who revealed that he was the child trafficker. He would kidnap human children and replace them with his unfertilized egg who would not live long. He took advantage of the human folk belief in changeling children, which were unwanted children of supernatural creatures; the supernatural creatures would kidnap human children and leave those unwanted children behind.
Vore's reason for trafficking babies was his hatred for humans, who had tortured and experimented on his parents. This was very shocking to Tina, who'd adapted to human life relatively well, having a job and a house. In any case, she couldn't let Vore put babies in danger, and she led the authorities to Vore. However, Vore escaped after being arrested.
Tina confronted her adopted father about her true parentage, and he revealed that he had worked at a psychiatric hospital where a lot of trolls were tortured and experimented on. Her parents had died, but he'd volunteered to take care of Tina, whose real name was Reva.
At the end of the movie, Tina was sent a package, with a troll baby and a postcard from Finland. It was implied that the baby was Vore and Tina's baby, and that Vore had made his way to the group of trolls who were living in Finland. Tina fed the baby a bug, which seemed to please the baby. I think this suggests that Tina would raise this child to be in touch with their troll heritage.
The story itself was pretty simple and straightforward. I think where the movie shone was how it expanded on troll culture and troll physiology. It really immersed us into Vore and Tina's world, and showed us how they didn't fit in in this human-centric world.
Production
The direction style was pretty down to earth. We folled Tina in her everyday life, as she went to work and went home, etc. I thought it was a really interesting way of introducing us to the whole new world of troll culture.
Whereas Tina struggled to fit in before, she was starting to find activites that genuinely gave her joy, such as eating bugs, running in the wild, spending time in the lake, etc. And as mentioned, her fear of lightning and thunder was shared with Vore, and for once, she met somebody who felt the same way as her.
I think a lot of people found troll intimacy really weird, but I thought it was nice. It's weird to us, but it was clearly a big step for Tina, who'd never been able to feel intimate with another person. I say intimacy because I'm not just talking about the sex scene. I'm also talking about Tina and Vore just doing stuff. We saw that when Tina, Vore, and Roland were having dinner, Tina and Vore were eating in the same way, and I think Tina's never really had someone on her side like that before.
Characters
Tina/Reva
Tina was our main character. It was revealed that she was born in the psychiatric hospital where the trolls live, and originally had the name Reva. After her parents died, she was taken in by her father and raised as a human. Unfortunately, she suffered a lot of bullying, but she mostly internalized it. We saw that she only expressed her anger about it at the end, when she confronted her father about lying to her about her heritage.
Tina's acute senses made her great at her job, and I think that her coworkers at least respected her for that. Her coworkers were never really passive aggressive towards her, and Agneta even asked Tina to help her with finding the child porn distributors.
Vore was clearly a very strange guy, but Tina couldn't help but be drawn to him. He introduced her to new habits like eating bugs. They were attracted to each other, and when Tina expressed discomfort with her body, Vore told her not to listen to the humans and that she was perfect as she was. It was only after they had sex that Vore told Tina that she was actually a troll, and I think that's when things started to fall in place for Tina. She realized that she didn't have to live like a human, she could do all those things that trolls liked because she was a troll. She didn't have to have a boyfriend just because humans said she had to, and she kicked him out.
That being said, she had a strong sense of empathy for the humans, having lived among them for so long, and so she didn't have the same views of troll supremacy as Vore did.
When Tina found out that Vore was the child trafficker, she had to come to terms with her views on humans as a troll. She knew she was not one of them now, but what did that mean for her? What was she going to do now? Would she hurt the humans for having hurt the trolls?
Tina is a kind person, but part of it is likely because there have been humans who were kind to her. Though her father wasn't perfect, he tried his best to love her. Her neighbours Esther and Stefan seemed pretty friendly too. Though she liked being a troll, she recognized that there were good humans.
By the end of the movie, Tina got a little bit of a closure from her father. He'd tried to avoid the question before, but he decided to own up and come clean. Of course, Tina wasn't really happy with him for hiding her parentage her whole life. She went to the cemetery where her parents were buried to find out more about herself and the trolls. And when Vore sent their baby to Tina, I think she saw this as a chance to reconnect with her troll side. She couldn't do anything about not having grown up a troll, but she was trying to effect change on the next generation of trolls.
Vore
Vore was a troll who was far more in touch with his troll side. He introduced Tina to the troll life, which was great for her, as she learned that her body and her habits weren't "abnormal," that was how she was meant to be.
Over time, we came to see that Vore also had extreme ideas on humans. He grew up in orphanages and did not have a good time there. It's not clear when he found out that he was a troll, but nevertheless, not having a single human who cared for you would have cemented his beliefs that all humans deserved to be hurt.
It was revealed that Vore was the child trafficker. He claimed that humans were going to hurt their own anyway, he was just helping them do something they were already going to do. He'd killed Patrick, the child trafficker, in order to silence him.
Looking back, the scene in which Vore met Esther and her baby became a lot more sinister. Tina had shown difficulty in handling the baby but Vore had cooed at the baby. I had thought that maybe Vore was just better with babies, but now I knew that it was an act, that he didn't care for the baby at all.
At the end of the movie, Vore maintained his views of troll superiority. He escaped from arrest, and it's suggested that he finally made his way to the troll community in Finland. Perhaps it was better for him to live among other trolls, so that he wouldn't further hurt innocent humans.
Tina's father
Tina's father raised Tina to be a human child. He worked at a psychiatric hospital where trolls were tortured and experimented on, and yet he showed Tina love in a way that he thought was appropriate. Raising her to believe she was human likely was not the best course of action, but he also probably didn't know better.
Since Tina was raised believing she was human, she underwent lots of bullying, especially relating to her appearance. And since her body was so different from that of a human woman's, she felt inadequate too.
We saw that Tina's father shut down when Tina first confronted him about the truth. But he later went to Tina to explain everything. Tina wasn't happy, because he'd still lied to her for her entire life. But I think that telling her the truth opens the door to possible reconciliation in the future.
Roland
Roland was Tina's boyfriend, but they really lived a lot more like roommates. At the beginning, Tina's father showed concern that Roland was maybe taking advantage of her (because she had a house). At first, I really thought that they were just roommates, until that time Roland tried to get her to have sex and she refused him.
Roland was really into dogs, and he was always going to dog competitions and such. He was weird out by Vore, and would tell Tina that he didn't like that he was living in the lodge.
Later on, when Tina started to gain confidence in her own skin, she kicked Roland out, recognizing that she didn't like him at all.
Themes
Trolls vs. Humans
I can't say that either of Vore or Tina were right or wrong in their views of trolls vs. humans. Vore was raised in orphanages where he struggled to fit in, and during the movie, we saw that he really embraced his troll side, often eating like a troll, etc. He hated humans a lot, and saw his work as a way to destroy them. On the other hand, Tina was raised in a family. Her dad did have his flaws, but from the beginning of the movie, I think we could assume that he had at least nurtured a good relationship with his adopted daughter. In addition, Tina had learned to fit in in society, having a job and friends. That being said, we can't ignore the fact that Tina was still bullied for her troll habits. She'd experienced a lot of bullying as a child, and was still bullied for being ugly (such as by the guy at the border who got his liquor confiscated).
It was easy for Vore to hate humans as none were ever kind to him, whereas Tina was straddling the line. She'd suffered a lot under humans, but she'd also met some kind humans. For example, Esther and Stefan were kind to her, and she definitely didn't think that they deserved to have their baby kidnapped and abused, though Vore did kidnap their baby in the end.
Good vs. evil
In their final conversation, Tina said she didn't want to be evil. Vore took that to mean that Tina wanted to be a human, but Tina questioned whether compassion was restricted to humans.
It showed flaws in Vore's thinking, as he believed that the only way trolls could "get even" with humans was to exact pain. Perhaps he was correct if we were strictly talking abotu vengeance. But what good does hurting humans do for trolls?
As for Tina, she was less concerned with trolls as a race, and she just wanted to live as a good person who was kind.
Otherness
This movie did a really good job in showing us the total otherness of trolls, from their eating and entertainment habits, to their physiology. The movie did a really good job in showing us how human society can be difficult for people who don't exactly fit in a certain mold.
I can definitely see people drawing parallels between the trolls and other marginalized groups, whether it's people from other ethnic groups, LGBT people, neurodivergent people, etc.
Border
The title can refer to a few things. Of course, Tina is a border crossing guard, so that's a more literal way of interpreting the title. In addition, Tina straddles the border between humans and trolls. She's a troll, but she's become accustomed to living as a human. Which side does she choose? Does she need to choose a side?
Overall
Really interesting movie. It's mellow but still really powerful. I can see why some people might be uncomfortable with the level of detail we got into the trolls' lives, but I really liked it. It really helped me to sympathize with Tina as she learned about herself.
I also liked that the end acknowledged that there is no one right way to approach such problems. For Tina, she wanted to continue living among humans, but she would still explore her troll side through raising her baby. As for Vore, it was more comfortable for him to live with other trolls.