There has rarely been a debate about a film like the current one in Poland around ‘The Green Border’. In her drama, well-known director Agnieszka Holland addresses the refugee crisis at the EU’s external borders. Between Belarus and Poland, a Syrian refugee family dreams of a better future and instead experiences horror: the border guards in Belarus send them to Poland, those there back to Belarus, where the game begins again. Asylum applications are simply ignored, the few possessions they have are gradually destroyed and they are physically abused.
Holland tells her story through many different people: The focus is not only on the family, but also on, among others, a Polish border official who is about to become a father and is building his house, as well as a psychologist who lives nearby the border and who wants to help and ends up breaking the law.
The Polish president denounces the film
Even around the world premiere at the renowned Venice Film Festival, where we were able to see the film, there were violent insults from Poland against the film. The country’s right-wing conservative government in particular denounced the project. The Netherlands was denounced as a traitor, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro described the film as ‘Nazi propaganda’ and its Prime Minister Andrzej Duda took a similar view.
He was referring to the period after the Second World War, when the Polish population only saw Nazi propaganda. He quoted a slogan from that time of Polish resistance fighters against the Nazi occupation and the imposed program: “There are only pigs in the cinema!”
But above all, they tried by all means to prevent “The Green Border” from becoming a box office success. A ban was not possible. Instead, it was ordered that before every (!) cinema screening of the film, a hastily produced ‘warning video’ would be shown, intended to explain that ‘The Green Border’ spreads nothing but lies. Moreover, President Duda personally called on the people of Poland not to go to the cinema, but to boycott “The Green Border” – but all this did not work at all.
Despite the president’s call for a boycott: start record for ‘The Green Border’
Quite the opposite. Audiences poured into cinemas last weekend. Like the Polish film magazine a total of 137,435 cinema tickets were reportedly purchased – an excellent mark for our neighboring country. “The Green Border” achieved the best start for a Polish film in 2023 (and it’s unlikely this is because people really wanted to see the government propaganda ad in advance).
‘The Green Border’ could also play a role in several upcoming film awards – that became clear during its debut in Venice. At the end of the renowned film festival, the film was awarded the Special Jury Prize. However, ‘The Green Border’ is still not in the running for Poland at the 2023 Oscars – perhaps not entirely unexpected given the controversy.
As the six-member selection committee announced today, Monday September 25, they had chosen the animated film ‘The Peasants’ after ‘hard and heated’ debates. Without mentioning “The Green Border” by name, it was explained that in the end there was a 4-2 vote. Director Holland has already made it clear that she believes the government ultimately supports the decision.
dem She revealed that the members of the selection committee, all renowned Polish filmmakers, had confirmed to her that her film was the best choice and promised the best chances at the Oscars. But in the end, everyone was afraid that the government would retaliate against them, for example by making it more difficult for them to finance future projects.
“The Green Border”: horror images that arouse feelings!
We already saw ‘The Green Border’ at the Venice Film Festival. In our 3-star review, film critic Janick Nolting concludes that “Agnieszka Holland also proves to be an important contemporary political director with her new drama.” However, he accuses her of ultimately “reproducing mainly horror images to arouse the greatest possible feelings.”
It is an accusation that, in the opinion of the author of these lines, is justified, but at the same time fits very well with the activist approach of the film – and is incredibly effective. “The Green Border” is a film that really makes you angry and disturbs you with its depiction of a very real horror. It’s worth seeing – and will hopefully be in German cinemas soon.
No start date has yet been announced for “The Green Border.” But we are very sure that a German cinema release for the drama, which is also supported by TV channels ZDF and Arte, will be announced soon.