Jean-Christophe Simon of Film Boutique negotiated the deal on behalf of Modern Films’ founder Eve Gabereau and MUBI’s SVP Content Bobby Allen. Access Cinema’s Maeve Cooke will handle the Irish physical distribution. The partners plan to release the film around Valentine’s Day 2019, with Modern Films handling first window rights in UK cinemas.

The deal follows a string of sales to other major distributors (including Neon for North America) who immediately saw the film’s cross over potential in Cannes where Border received standing ovations and won the Un Certain Regard Prize.

Gabereau said: "We are thrilled to be part of this grown-up fairy-tale that touches on so many issues at the heart of the human condition and the travails of contemporary living. Teaming up with a distributor and film service as innovative as MUBI gives the film access to new audiences on a range of different platforms and gives us the chance to work together on building an impactful and fun campaign that conveys how surprising, refreshing and deeply emotional the film is.”

Allen said: "We are very excited about the film and its potential to crossover to a more mainstream audience. For us, curating is integral to what we do and being able to treat viewers to something so unexpectedly wonderful as Border shows us how far we can push our vision in the next few years."

Abbasi’s second feature based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s short story was produced by Sweden’s Meta Film Stockholm, Spark Film & TV, Kärnfilm, in co-production with Meta Film Denmark, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond among others.

The theatrical release in Sweden via TriArt is set for August 31st.

Set up in 2017 by Gabereau (former founder of Soda Pictures), Modern Films has two other Nordic titles in its upcoming line-up: Erik Poppe’s U-July 22, and Marcus Lindeen’s documentary The Raft.

MUBI’s previous Nordic release was The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, released both online and in cinemas in the US and in the UK/Ireland.