Frontier(s)
This article is missing information about the film's production.(March 2018) |
Frontier(s) | |
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Directed by | Xavier Gens |
Written by | Xavier Gens |
Produced by | Laurent Tolleron |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Laurent Barès |
Edited by | Carlo Rizzo |
Music by | Jean-Pierre Taieb |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | EuropaCorp |
Release dates |
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Running time | 108 minutes[2] |
Countries |
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Languages |
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Budget | $3 million |
Frontier(s) (French: Frontière(s)) is a 2007 French-Swiss independent horror film written and directed by Xavier Gens in his feature length debut and stars Karina Testa, Aurélien Wiik, Estelle Lefébure, and Samuel Le Bihan. It follows a group of young criminals from Paris who lodge at a countryside inn run by neo-Nazis in the aftermath of riots spurred by a controversial presidential election.
After its premiere in
Plot
A
At the hospital, the emergency room staff report Sami's injury to the police. Sami insists Yasmine run before the police catch her. His dying wish is that Yasmine not have an abortion. Alex and Yasmine flee, leaving the fatally wounded Sami behind. Alex and Yasmine phone their friends for directions to the inn. Tom and Farid give them directions but soon after are brutally attacked by Gilberte, Klaudia, and Goetz. When Tom and Farid try to escape, Goetz runs their car off a cliff. The injured men wander into a mine shaft, where Tom is quickly recaptured. Farid must fend for himself with the family's rejected children in the mine. Unaware of the danger, Alex and Yasmine arrive at the inn and are captured by the family.
Alex and Yasmine are chained in a muddy-floored pigpen. Alex breaks Yasmine's chains and allows her to escape. When the captors discover Yasmine's escape, the family patriarch, von Geisler, cuts Alex's
Eventually, Eva leads Yasmine down to dinner, where the family awaits her. Von Geisler is revealed to be a former (and still practicing) Nazi who's lived at the inn since the end of WWII. Von Geisler offers up a toast to the new blood, and Yasmine quickly grabs a large knife and takes von Geisler hostage. Hans grabs a shotgun and shoots von Geisler in the confusion; Karl shoots Hans dead in turn. Yasmine escapes and is chased by Karl and Goetz into the mine. Yasmine eventually makes her way into one of the body storage rooms, where she fights with Goetz. After a bloody struggle, she repeatedly hits him with an axe before impaling him on a rotating table saw. Karl catches Yasmine as she tries to return to the surface, but Eva comes to the rescue, blowing off Karl's head with a shotgun. Yasmine searches for car keys to escape but is ambushed by Gilberte and Klaudia bearing sub-machine guns. Yasmine hits a gas tank during the shootout, blowing up the room. Gilberte survives the explosion and attempts to kill Yasmine, only to have her throat torn out by her. With everyone else in the neo-Nazi family dead, Yasmine tries to persuade Eva to leave with her, but Eva stays to take care of the children in the mine. On the road, one hears on the radio that the far-right candidate in the election has won the second round, thus becoming the new French President. Yasmine runs into a police blockade near the border, where she surrenders to the authorities.
Cast
- Karina Testa as Yasmine
- Estelle Lefébure as Gilberte
- Aurélien Wiik as Alex
- Samuel Le Bihan as Goetz
- David Saracino as Tom
- Chems Dahmani as Farid
- Adel Bencherif as Sami
- Maud Forget as Eva
- Amélie Daure as Klaudia
- Rosine Favey as The mother
- Joël Lefrançois as Hans
- Patrick Ligardes as Karl
- Jean-Pierre Jorris as Von Geisler
Release
Frontier(s) was intended to be one of the
Reception
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film, writing: "There’s enough blood in the unrated French horror film Frontier(s) to satiate even the most ravenous gore hounds. The real surprise here is that this creepy, contemporary gross-out also has some ideas, visual and otherwise, wedged among its sanguineous drips, swaying meat hooks and whirring table saw."[5] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded the film two out of five stars, calling it "One for hardcore fans only."[6] Writing for The Village Voice, Jim Ridley noted: "Ah, the triumph of globalization: Give the French a taste of neo-fascism, race riots, and paramilitary crackdowns, and they seek solace in the American cinema’s current favorite pastime—vigorously art-directed torture porn."[7]
John Anderson of
Scott Tobias of
Internet film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 64%, based on 22 reviews, with a rating average of 6.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Perhaps slapdash with its aspirations toward message-making, this ultra-gory horror flick nonetheless delivers the bloody goods".[10] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 44 out of 100, based on 5 reviews.[11]
Critical analysis
Frontier(s) has been cited by film scholars as an example of the
References
- ^ a b "Frontière (s) (2006) Xavier Gens" (in French). Bifi.fr. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
- ^ "FRONTIERE(S) - FRONTIER(S) (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 21 November 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
- ^ Amner, Darren. "Horror's New Frontiers". EyeForFilm. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Oliver, David (1 July 2008). "DVD REVIEW: AFTER DARK HORRORFEST 2007 – FRONTIER(S)". CHUD.com. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (9 May 2008). "After Making It Out of Paris, Finding There's No Escape". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (14 March 2008). "Frontier(s)". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Ridley, Jim. "Xavier Gens's Frontière(s)". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Anderson, John (17 September 2007). "Frontier(s)". Variety. Archived from the original on 13 November 2012.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (8 May 2008). "Frontier(s)". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
- ^ "Frontier(s) Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
- ^ "Frontier(s) (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 9 May 2008.
- ISBN 978-1-841-50563-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-476-62511-9.
External links
- Frontier(s) at IMDb
- Frontier(s) at Rotten Tomatoes
- Frontier(s) at Metacritic