Tina (Eva Melander) certainly seems … unusual. Her facial features suggest some early hominid ancestor. Her job as a customs agent at a Swedish port-of-entry maximizes her talent for literally sniffing out smugglers. She seems to communicate with wildlife. So when an encounter with a mysterious fellow named Vore (Eero Milonoff) suggests a past with which Tina was previously unaware, we’re primed for going along on that weird ride. Director/co-writer Ali Abbasi adapts John Ajvide Lindqvist’s short story as a metaphor about assimilation, and about the hate-inspiring ripple effects of treating others as less than human, wrapped up in a package that’s part police procedural, part body horror and part fantasy (including a particularly distinctive kind of reproductive cycle). The pieces don’t always fit together, and when they do—like the connection between Vore and a case Tina is investigating—it can feel way too coincidental. But Melander provides the emotional foundation with a performance that captures something poignant and angry about trying to fit into a culture that doesn’t really want you, and finding the moral courage to do to others better than they ever did to you.
By
Scott Renshaw