The San Sebastian Film Festival have their share of hits and misses, Border belonging to the latter, sadly. Intimate yet uncomfortable, it has its share of gross bathroom scenes like showing Su Qing (Feng Qi) there. She cleans herself before going out to the streets and meeting clients like coal miner Luo Jia (Zheyan Li). Both live in a depressing border town where mining is the big precarious industry. She chooses to marry him, the mine shuts down, he looks for work, is unsuccessful at it. He resorts to crime, and walks into a Security Guard (Han Sanming) lying down on the floor.

Yes, I centred most of my synopsis on Su Qing even though Luo Jia is the protagonist. The film captures his life through a non descript routine and this is where I’ll be slightly kind. Most reviewers haven’t, but underneath all those bad reviews are ones who bafflingly compare this film to Bresson. I see that vision, and there are also some hints of Ah Biao stealing from Kubrick’s aesthetic. Life can be boring at times, most people finding their routines especially when people waste their lives. Even when disruption comes, it’s difficult to capture that jolt, and Border captures change manifesting too slowly.

Between Border‘s second and third act, the film reveals Su Qing’s real origins as a Christian Mongolian, returning to live with her parents. This is going to seem like I’m the kind of person requiring some guidance while watching films. I swear I don’t, but the film at least needs to make its viewers feel its changes. There’s potential within this change in showing people that don’t usually get their cinematic spotlight at last. This is just one of the many moments that the film squanders in choosing to be miserable.