Movie Details
Movie: Borders of Love (2022)
Director: Tomasz Wiński
Cast: Hana Vagnerová, Matyás Reznícek and Eliska Krenková
Movie Genres: Drama/Erotic thriller
Release date: 3 November 2022
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10
Languages: Czech
Duration: 1h 35m
Trailer
Synopsis
Although the controversial poster and especially the trailer beckoned for throbbing sexual wilderness in the style of Gaspar Noé’s films, it was unlikely that the resulting film would look like this. A few years ago, director Hranic lásky and Tomasz Wiński caught the attention which showed the director’s desire to describe the hard-to-grasp corners of relationships and sexuality.
From the very beginning, we watch relatively explicit sexual scenes between the characters of Hana and Petr, played by Hana Vagnerová and Matyáš Řezníček. It is not pornography, but the level of certain details exceeds what we are used to from established domestic actors. We watch the whole scene with a mobile phone camera, where a couple in love records their essential relationship moments. The intimacy and authenticity of this passionate prologue are in thoughtful contrast to the more conventionally filmed sexual escapades that the two protagonists later encounter.
Mainly thanks to a meeting with friends professing a free relationship (Martin Hofmann and Eliška Křenková), Hana and Petr start experimenting. This does not lead to the aforementioned audiovisual wilderness, but at the same time, such penetration into the lower layers of a partner relationship does not take place even through dull dialogues at dinner. Wiński manages not to say enough important information, but to let it emerge from the facial expressions of the actors or the seemingly simple filming of the situation.
In line with his New Intimacy manifesto, Wiński focuses on ordinary relationship topics that don’t get enough space in films. The boundaries of love are thus not a comprehensive analysis of the possibilities of polyamory, but rather a translation of relational fumbling, insecurities, and communication clumsiness, which we probably all know. However, we don’t have to immediately resort to dissolving functioning relationships like a character in a movie.
At the same time, it must be added that this is not primarily about communication, as often mentioned in relationship lessons, but rather about openness, the ability to reveal oneself emotionally to another person. It is precisely in this that the main characters fail, especially Petr falls into a spiral of suppressing his emotions in front of his partner and in front of himself. This raises the question of whether so-called open relationships are only a band-aid or a splinter of one’s own ego, which is not strong enough in itself to be able to face another person’s head-on; let alone a loved one. It’s not talked about very often and it’s good that the film opens up this difficult topic without trivializing it with simplistic answers
It is also a very intimate film for the creators themselves. Together with Wiński, Vagnerová put together the theme in 2015 and gradually developed it. The first half of the film is perhaps even overthought – the start is rather lengthy, but the viewer knows what it is leading to. Around the halfway point the film picks up the pace completely in line with the presented idea that a person builds an addiction to casual sex.
The aforementioned recording of shared moments on a mobile phone also frames the entire film. While the hard drive with stored memories breaks at the beginning and the couple is thus symbolically forced to create new experiences, the whole idea gets a sympathetically low point at the end.
Eliška Křenková’s character says at one point, similar things just happen. There are no clear offenders and the film encourages us to think about what honesty, trust, and intimacy mean to us in a relationship.
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