Neon acquired North American rights to director Ali Abbasi’s troll love story “Border” following its world premiere at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, the company announced Friday.
The Swedish genre film is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, whose previous vampire story, “Let the Right One In,” became an international film hit in 2010 — and was also adapted by Hollywood two years later.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Border,” the second feature from Iranian-born Danish director Abbasi, follows a border guard (Eva Melander) who has the ability to smell human emotions and catch smugglers. When she comes across a mysterious man with a smell that confounds her detection, she is forced to confront hugely disturbing insights about herself and humankind.
Abassi co-scripted the film with Isabella Eklöf, in collaboration with Lindqvist.
TheWrap’s Steve Pond described the film as “a quintessential midnight movie for the artiest of art-houses,” noting its depiction of maggot-eating beast people who engage in “some hairy, sweaty and distinctly unusual troll sex.”
He added, “But it’s also an allegory of how we treat outsiders, from migrants to those who don’t love the same way we do.”
Producers include Nina Bisgaard, Piodor Gustafsson and Petra Jönsson for Meta Film Stockholm, Spark Film & TV and Kärnfilm, in co-production with Meta Film Denmark, together with Film i Väst, SVT and Copenhagen Film Fund.
The Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film & TV Fond provided production support. The film was also supported by the Danish Film Institute, MEDIA and Eurimages.