Borderlineone of the best recent thrillers
After its award-winning presentations at the Reims International Crime Film Festival in 2023, then at the Premiers Plans Festival in Angers in 2024, Borderline finally arrives in French cinemas May 1, 2024. This film is a psychological thriller of the first order, of such mastery that it is difficult to believe that this is a first feature. Written and directed by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez, it tells the story of a couple’s departure from Barcelona for the United States, where they intend to settle.
Everything is in order for their departure, but very soon tension emerges. It begins with the common fear, in the taxi, of having forgotten your passport. But false alarm, Diego (Alberto Ammann) and Elena (Bruna Cusi) get on the plane. However, when they arrive at Newark Airport where they have to catch a connection to Miami, the trip derails…
A tense and brilliant closed session
At the border police, in front of a suspicious agent, Diego appears nervous. The couple is then taken to a small room in the basement, without windows or mesh, to be subjected to a second interrogation. Is their marriage authentic? Why do they emigrate? Is this the first time Diego has attempted to enter American territory? Who am I really?
Pushed to the limit, forced to trust in their privacy, psychologically tortured by two police officers who will stop at nothing to get the information they seek, Diego and Elena, who arrived free and as a couple in the United States, will get out again of this free and always together interrogation?
Borderline, with a notable economy of time and means – four actors, a handful of scenes and 1h17 of duration – manages to build a suffocating tension and throws the spectator into a surprising vertigo: how does this border crossing, delimited a priori, take shape? and banal, can it turn into an ordeal capable of upsetting the lives of the characters? With this interrogation that turns into a test of survival, Juan Sebastián Vásquez and Alejandro Rojas also offer a critical look at very contemporary evils such as sexism, racism and discrimination against migrants. Borderline it is therefore a compelling thriller, all the more successful because it is rich in substance.
A film inspired by the directors’ personal experience
For Borderline, Juan Sebastián Vásquez and Alejandro Rojas, both Venezuelans, drew on their own experiences. Alejandro Rojas explained to us on the occasion of the film’s release in France:
“As Venezuelans, this has happened to us and our loved ones, simply by visiting the United States or going to work there. We have noticed that, most of the time, we go through this secondary inspection. The reason is because we come from a certain place It’s sad to say, but it’s like this. Today with Juan we have dual nationality, we are also Spanish and all the racial profiling that comes from that, from those experiences that we have in common with many people.”
“There is this story, with its socio-political dimension, and there is also the story of the couple, a story of doubts and love. For us it was important that the viewer gets emotionally involved with this couple, there is no film. For this reason, very early on, we decided that Diego would be Venezuelan, like us, while Elena would be Spanish and experience this ordeal with different privileges.”
An “organic” shot for the actors
Opposite Alberto Ammann and Bruna Cusi, the American actors Ben Temple and Laura Gómez play the police officers who conduct the interrogation. Filming took place in chronological order, which allowed the artists to construct their performances in logical continuity. The police do everything they can to destabilize Diego and Elena and, as Alejandro Rojas says, Laura Gómez has managed to significantly deviate from the scenario, to destabilize her partners “in real life”.
“We shot 8 to 10 pages of script a day, which is huge. We only had 11 days of shooting. Shooting in chronological order allowed us to do something very organic. When Elena/Bruna are interviewed alone, Diego/ Alberto can relax, then it’s his turn. The story of the film is like the story of the shooting!
“What we did to have a little more tension was that sometimes we asked Laura to ask questions that weren’t in the script. Alberto and Bruna really liked it, it kept them engaged. The tension. They were very focused, even though they didn’t know if they would have to answer new and unusual questions. And sometimes Laura went even further, before returning to the text. They liked this way of working.
A challenging sequence for Bruna Cusi
There are several voltage spikes Borderline, especially when Diego and Elena are later interrogated alone. Alejandro Rojas remembers that Elena’s interrogation, during which she had to prove that she was actually a dancer, and therefore danced, was very tiring for the actress Bruna Cusi.
“The dance scene was hard for Bruna. Also because, shortly before, they had asked her something like: ‘do you realize how many times you will see your parents again?’, I calculate, it’s not much. So yes, the scene alone of Bruna’s interrogation was quite challenging.”
Bruna is a magical actress. She is very analytical, when she reads the script she wants to understand everything herself. Every word counts, it’s very important to her. But what comes out next is very intuitive, very natural. We can see quite well what she feels on one side and what she says on the other. Her register is very subtle.
Source: Cine Serie
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