Green Border by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland was awarded with the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Filmfestival. I had to wait till last week to watch this movie at our local cinema, where the film had its premiere in Sweden. It was made into a special occasion with a video-recorded introduction by the director and with a panel conversation after the movie.

The film has been presented as the most compelling film of the year. It deals with the refugee crisis in Europe. The green border refers to the passage in the vast, virtually impenetrable forests at the Polish-Belorussian border, a green corridor cynically created in the autumn of 2021 by the Belorussian dictator Alexander Lukasjenko. Refugees from the Middle East and Africa were attracted to that piece of barbed-wired border through propaganda promising them an easy passage into the EU.

Almost in a documentary fashion Agnieszka Holland directs the camera at the players in this human tragedy. A Syrian family, fleeing the civil war in their country, who wants to join their relatives in Sweden. Two human rights activist sisters who for different reasons want to be of help. A psychiatrist living close to the border who gets involved when she hears cries for help near her house. A border guard who needs to do his duty but starts to doubt the dehumanization that is asked from him.       

It is this dehumanization that Holland wants to counteract with her film. The border guard hears his officer scream that these scared, running for their lives refugees ”are not people.” In her Holocaust films Europa Europa (1990) and In Darkness (2011), she addressed the same problem like in this film. Although proud of European values like democracy, human rights, equality, we are never far away from selfishness and hate. In her introduction she reminded us of the importance of keeping sight of the equal value of all people. Only when we depersonalize are we able to treat other people as if they are less than ourselves.

Agnieszka Holland reminds us that ”film exists to share experiences and feel empathy for those we don’t know.” Her film gives us an opportunity to see the difficult questions right in the face. The duality of empathy and care at one side and fear and hate at the other side is not far from each one of us and it is important to be aware of that. Green Border illuminates the difficult human choices and considerations we face, our own helplessness. She poses the questions that we may not have an answer to, but to understand them may increase our empathy and understanding. The more than two and a half hours the film takes is more than worth the investment.

Rinus Baljeu, Oct 2024

Recent Posts