The Haskell Free Library And Opera House is a ‘400-square-metre anomaly’. So says Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel, narrator of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s 45th Parallel. This 15-minute film takes the form of a four-act monologue, in which Fleifel (wandering between shelves, orating in the auditorium) recounts some strange events that have unfolded within the Haskell as a result of its straddling the Canadian-US border. 

Citizens of both countries can enter the library through the same door, but must return to their own jurisdiction afterwards, a tiny wrinkle within the USA’s ever-more authoritarian border policies. Inside, a boundary guarded elsewhere with guns and sniffer dogs takes the form of a strip of black tape on the floor, across which readers can amble back and forth. A few years ago, a gun-smuggling operations was foiled by librarians. More recently, families separated by Trump’s anti-Muslim travel ban used the space as a meeting point.

This microscopic zone of interstate porosity provides a typically rich seam for Abu Hamdan to explore through his forensic, investigative art. In this case, much is made of the related story of a Mexican teen killed by a US border patrol agent firing across the country’s other, more contested borderline. Gripping, smart, and nuanced, the Turner Prize winner’s first solo show in Scotland is a must-see. 

Lawrence Abu Hamdan: 45th Parallel, Talbot Rice Gallery, until 30 September.