Rajavartija (The Border Guard)  is a short horror film that takes place in the border area of Finland and Russia. A man goes to work for the first day as a border guard. Soon, an old incident and a secret start to haunt him and the events lead to a brutal battle for survival.


The film is writer / director Miro Laiho's second film. His directing debut Herääminen (The Awakening) won the best short film's award in the Iik! Horror Film Festival of 2009. The first draft of Rajavartija's script was written, while Herääminen was still in post-production.

The crew of the two films are pretty much the same. Rajavartija is produced by Minna Korhonen and Miro Laiho. Anne-Mari Musturi returns as the director of photography, Jaakko Sorja as the gaffer and Ville Hakonen along with Jussi Sandhu as the film editors. Sound designer and composer of the film is Laiho himself, only with his artistic name Michael Law.

Rajavartija stars Reidar Palmgren, with whom Laiho starred together in another film of TAMK School of Art and Media, "Whistle While You Work." Laiho met Palmgren during the shooting and thought he would be a great lead actor for Rajavartija as well. The other lead actor, Jevgeni Haukka, was recommended by many actors in Tampere. The Ingrian actor brought a level of authenticity for the role of the Russian border guard. Other actors include Vesa Wallgren and Tomi Pietilä.

The film's public premiere is April the 24th at 5.30 PM in the film theatre of Niagara in Tampere. It will be also seen at Tampere Art Factory festival May 5-7. Also, on May 12th, the film will be screened in the Ruma restaurant in Tampere, where the filmmakers will be present to talk about the filmmaking process.


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Watch the trailer on Youtube