Border lives: Borau’s Río abajo/On the Line (1984)

Set on either side of the Rio Grande, Rio abajo/On theLine (1984), Borau’s powerful border drama, touches on his constant themes of marginality, conflicted relationships, love and violence. It was beset by many problems, and earned mixed reviews in the United States and Spain, but remains a key work in Borau’s film career. This article examines the mise-en-scène and character construction in the light of Borau’s comments that, in Río abajo, his characters are personajes-consecuencia (consequence characters), inseparable from their physical and emotional contexts. An analysis of the challenges faced by border societies on either side of the Rio Grande, and of compromised individuals struggling to reconcile conflicting needs and desires, reveals the formal intricacy and psychological depth of the film.