The Last Border

1993 Finnish film

20 August 1993 (1993-08-20) (Finland)
12 September 1993 (1993-09-12) (Canada)

Running time

105 minutesCountriesFinland, Germany, Sweden, FranceLanguageEnglish

The Last Border (Finnish: The Last Border – viimeisellä rajalla^[1]) is a 1993 Finnish post-apocalyptic film directed, written, and produced by Mika Kaurismäki, starring Jolyon Baker, Jürgen Prochnow, Fanny Bastien and Kari Väänänen. The film takes place in the near future for 2009, when global pollution has forced people to move to the Arctic Circle, being the only viable territory.

The film was premiered at the 1993 Toronto International Film Festival.

Cast

Jolyon Baker as Jake
Jürgen Prochnow as Duke
Fanny Bastien as Doaiva
Kari Väänänen as Borka
Matti Pellonpää as Dimitri
Soli Labbart as Old woman
Clas-Ove Bruun as Skunk
Jussi Lampi as Rabbit
Juice Leskinen as Bartender
Esko Salminen as Jake's father
Jochen Nickel as Beggar
Mato Valtonen as Drunkard
Sakke Järvenpää as Biker

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes gives The Last Border a score of 12% based on 60 ratings by audience.^[2]

In Variety magazine's October 1993 review, Emanuel Levy called film "a spoof of the Mad Max cult films." He comments, that the film's "subtle humor and moderate violence (by today's standards) may disappoint viewers expecting excessive treatment of such matters", but also said, that its "impressive visual design and strong perfs by Matti Pellonpää and Jürgen Prochnow could broaden satire's commercial prospects beyond the midnight circuit."^[3]

References

^ The Last Border – Finna.fi (in Finnish)
^ "The Last Border (1993)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
^ Emanuel Levy. The Last Border. Variety, 4 October 1993.