Problematic father figures and a pill-pushing doctor lead a Danish man into darkness in Isabella Eklof's powerful drama echoing with colonial conflict.
Jan is on the run from himself and his traumas after being sexually abused by his father. Now he lives with his family in Nuuk, Greenland, where he works as a nurse and does his best to assimilate into the local community. However, his past catches up with him through a letter from his now dying father, plunging him into a downward spiral of drugs and extramarital affairs. Emil Johnsen is captivating in the lead role, portraying Jan as both boyishly fragile and deeply unsettling. Haunted by his own father figure he's reflecting Denmark's paternalistic relationship with Greenland and its population. Isabella Eklof follows up her acclaimed debut (Holiday, GFF 2018) with a courageous exploration of human darkness, based on Kim Leine's autobiography, solidifying her position as one of our most exciting Nordic directors.
源自：https://program.goteborgfilmfestival.se/en/program/kalak
The story opens in Balochistan, in a small, scarcely ‘wired’ village bordering Iran and Afghanistan. Ahmad is an idealistic teacher in exile, educating the local community; his partner Haseeba, however, has spent time in jail in Tehran for the very same offence against the State. The disaccord between them is not only social but also personal. Ahmad's destiny collides with that of a family fleeing the Taliban; soon the intricate divisions of age and gender within that group will trigger other problems and entanglements – including a 'lovers on the run' intrigue that fleetingly recalls Murnau's classic Tabu (1931).
Across all the arresting, shifting peripeteia of its plot, Abbas Amini's film deftly dramatises the complicated question of commitment: do we commit ourselves to a political cause, a set of religious beliefs, or a person? And how do we negotiate the commitments of others, even those closest to us, when they are based on a very different value system?
With its sparse music score, densely naturalistic acting and unostentatious camera work, Endless Borders is almost a minimalistic suspense thriller (with Hitchcockian overtones), combined with a heated family melodrama – but it never loses sight of the serious and extremely timely issues that it raises.
源自：https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2023/films/endless-borders
