Main Cast: Tanja Potocnik, Pia Zemlic, Iva Krajnc, Jonas Znidarsic, Gorazd Zilavec
Release Year: 2001
Country: SI/DE
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Billed as a female version of Deliverance, Guardian of the Frontier is an allegorical thriller that takes place in the scenic but menacing Slovenian countryside. The film has as its protagonists Zana, Simona, and Alja, three college students who decide to spend part of their summer vacation on a canoe and camping trip down the Kolpa, the river separating Slovenia and Croatia. The three embark on their trip with a farewell to Alja's boyfriend, and before you can say "Go Fish," Alja and Zana are engaged in a sweaty affair that shocks Simona, a sexual naïf. Things get even weirder after Simona meets an ostensibly pleasant fisherman; soon, the three young women realize something isn't right in the woods, and that they are being followed by someone or something who hasn't been invited along for the trip. Guardian of the Frontier was screened at the 2002 Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Review
Maja Weiss' Guardian of the Frontier, billed as the first feature from Slovenia directed by a woman, is a sexy candy-colored adventure-slasher flick-political allegory-fairy tale with a very attractive cast. Alja (Tanja Potocnik), Simona (Iva Krajnc), and Zana (Pia Zemljic) are clearly meant as archetypes and not three-dimensional characters, right down to their color-coded hair. The cast is game, and the cinematography by Bojan Kastelic is lovely. The overly ominous score by Stewart Dunlop crosses the line into parody after a while. Early on, the film itself seems like a sly parody of a Friday the 13th-style horror film, along the lines of Slumber Party Massacre with better production values, but as the all-girl canoe trip spins out of control, the film gets enjoyably loopy, offering a psychosexual phantasmagoria that doubles as a post-feminist critique of contemporary political and moral values. Weiss is clearly a clever filmmaker, and she uses various techniques, including jump cuts, fantasy segments, and music video-style sequences to help create an over-the-top sense of unreality. Like Neil Jordan's underseen The Company of Wolves, the film cannily blends ancient mythology and political content its entertaining discourse on female sexuality. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Cast
Tanja Potocnik - Alja
Pia Zemlic - Zana
Iva Krajnc - Simona
Jonas Znidarsic - The Guardian
Gorazd Zilavec - Medo; Boris Ostan; Igor Korsic
Credit
Peter Braatz - Co-producer, Maja Weiss - Director, Peter Braatz - Editor, Stewart Dunlop - Composer (Music Score), Pepi Sekulic - Production Designer, Bojan Kastelic - Cinematographer, Ida Weiss - Producer, Brock Norman Brock - Screenwriter, Maja Weiss - Screenwriter, Zoran Hocevar - Screenwriter
