Border

Border is a 2018 Swedish fantasy film directed by Ali Abbasi with a screenplay by Abbasi, Isabella Eklöf and John Ajvide Lindqvist based on the short story of the same name by Ajvide Lindqvist from his anthology Let the Old Dreams Die. It won the award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and was selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards but was not nominated. However, it was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Plot Tina works for the Swedish Customs Service and uses her heightened olfactory sense to detect contraband, as well as human emotions such as guilt and shame. She has a strongly Neanderthalic appearance and lives in a secluded house in the woods with Roland, a dog trainer. One day at the border, Tina sniffs out a memory card containing child pornography, and her superior asks her to help with the subsequent investigation. The next day, a strange man with facial features similar to Tina's appears at customs. His bag is revealed to contain maggots and a device that the man claims is a maggot incubator. Tina lets him pass, but he soon returns and volunteers to be strip searched. Tina is taken aback when she learns that the man has female genitalia and a large scar on his tailbone. The man introduces himself as Vore and states that he will be staying in a nearby hostel. Tina goes to a nursing home to see her father, who does not look like her. Upon being asked about the origin of her scar, Tina's father tells her she fell on something as a small child. She then visits the hostel where she finds Vore eating maggots off a tree. He gives her one, which she eats. Tina offers him a room in her guest house and he accepts. Tina brings him home. He tries to kiss her. Roland's suspicions are aroused.