Borderless

Amirhossein Asgari's directorial debut is a meditative and quiet drama that lightly touches upon nationalistic tensions in the Middle East, but is ultimately more concerned with the impact of war upon the human spirit. A young boy establishes a downed ship as his own private clubhouse, a place where he can fish, paint, and generally explore the massive vessel in relative peace and quiet, far away in atmosphere if not physical distance from the tumultuous battles that tear across the border of his unnamed country. A dramatic interruption arrives in the form of a tough, gun-toting, similar-age refugee who immediately establishes a primitive rope border across the ship's center, effectively halving the craft for each to share. The boy's animosity towards this interloper is quickly snuffed out when he realizes that she is a girl, one who is housing an infant child of unknown relation to her. Purpose and order are reinstated as the two adolescents begin to share domestic responsibility for the baby, but the ship's hierarchy is challenged once again when an adult Caucasian soldier stumbles across their makeshift home. Asgari, who wrote the screenplay, keeps dialogue and exposition to a minimum—sometimes to a fault—but overall this is a well-made portrait of life in warfare. Recommended. (J. Cruz)