GUARDIAN OF THE FRONTIER

Strong currents of “Deliverance” eddy through this disturbing psychosexual thriller, set on the scenic but treacherous wilderness territory of what was once Yugoslavia, which fell into a sometimes-violent patchwork following the Soviet collapse. Three cosmopolitan college girls, Cana, Alja and Simona, take a holiday to do what university students generally do, and it's not homework. Packing some marijuana and sending Cana's unwanted boyfriend packing, they embark on a unisex canoe and camping excursion down the Kolpe River, a still bitter border dividing Croatia from Slovenia. Rumors of young women disappearing and glimpses of ragged refugees fuel their “Blair Witch”-style campfire scare stories, but the menacing male figures on the Slovenian side may be no joke. Are the real enemies outside their tent, however, or inside? Provocatively clad in attire as skimpy as their contempt, the trio crash a fete in a village they term “Lower Fuckville,” visit a once-famous actor turned pariah, and incur the moral ire of a local conservative politician (portrayed, of all people, by the real-life host of the Slovenian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”). All the while Alja mocks Simona's virginal shyness and makes brazen overtures to would-be journalist Cana, whose camera snapshots may be the only reliable witness as politics, intoxicants, lust and estrogen cloud the picture of what really did happen there on the Kolpe. (In Slovenian with English subtitles)