GREEN BORDER

GREEN BORDER is the new movie by the three-time Oscar®-nominated Polish director extraordinaire Agnieszka Hollandwho will attend this year’s Venice Film Festival seven (!) awards (including the “Special Jury Prize”, the “Cinema for UNICEF Award” and the “Best Foreign Film Award”) and at the1.2.2024 distributed by Piffl Medien in German cinemas will come. The multi-perspective drama focuses on the refugee crisis at the border between Belarus and Poland and brings absolutely topical and central questions to the table – which fundamental values and human rights should we actually demand and defend at the EU’s external borders? What values should our European asylum and refugee policy be based on?

GREEN BORDER is a co-production between Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium and France. Agnieszka Holland carried out intensive research for her film and spoke to people involved on all sides, resulting in an almost documentary-like film. Holland realized this film against the resistance of her national-conservative government in Poland. Both the director and her film became the object of hate in political campaigns, Holland was accused of anti-Polish attitudes, the film was labeled Nazi propaganda – she had to be given personal protection at times. Although GREEN BORDER immediately became the most successful Polish film in Polish cinemas in 2023 and should have been the obvious favorite, GREEN BORDER was not submitted by Poland as the Polish entry for the Oscars®. This reception in Poland is a worrying illustration of what can happen to freedom of expression and art; to political and cultural debates when national-conservative forces gain too much influence on culture and society; what consequences this has for loud voices and debates.

Here, on the edge of the immense Białowieża forests, the lives of different people intersect. Jan is a Polish border guard officer, he comes from the area himself, his wife is pregnant and they are building a house. The escalation at the border increasingly calls the certainties of his life into question. After a personal stroke of fate, psychotherapist Julia has moved to eastern Poland to make a new home in the seclusion of the borderland. Without having planned it, she becomes part of a group of activists who, despite the state ban, try to provide the refugees trapped in the forests with the basic necessities. They meet Bashir and Amina, who fight for the survival of their family every day.

In the midst of this unspoiled landscape on the green border, a polyphonic drama unfolds between hope and despair, cynicism and humanity. It is not possible to look away. It’s a matter of life and death

“Agnieszka Holland has not made a manifesto, but a highly humane, clear-sighted and wise film that doesn’t take the easy way out in its observations. Neither are the rescuing activists holy saviors, nor are the border guards brute beasts. Holland shows their moral scruples, the disputes, the emotional trigger points of these people, their despair and hope for a different world. “Green Border” makes you angry because it shows what is. (…) All of Europe should see it, because all of Europe is present in this film, with its light and its very dark sides.” AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS

Details

• Cinema release date: In cinemas from February 1!
• With Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Behi Djanati Atai, Tomasz Włosok and many more.
• A film by Oscar®-nominated director Agnieszka Holland
• GREEN BORDER was awarded 7 prizes at the Venice Film Festival