Agnieszka Holland’s latest, out now from Kino Lorber, is an indictment of institutionalized violence against immigrants
Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa, The Secret Garden) confronts the ever-present issue of immigration in her recent Green Border, a prizewinner from the 2023 Venice Film Festival now available on Blu-Ray. The screenplay – written by Holland along with Maciej Pisuk and Gabriela Lazarkiewicz-Siecko – portions the story into varied viewpoints: that of a Syrian family attempting to get to Sweden by way of Belarus and Poland, a member of Polish border patrol, activists who work on the border and face possible jail time for doing so, and a Polish therapist who feels called to help immigrants. Here the filmmaker isn’t looking for an individual scapegoat, but is instead calling the Polish government (and others) to task. Of course, it’s easy for an American audience to see similarities to our own government’s treatment of immigrants at the southern border.
It’s 2021 and refugee families and individuals travel through Belarus in hopes of being welcomed into the European Union on the other side of the border. Leila (Behi Djanati Atai) is a woman seeking asylum in Poland since her brother was a translator for Polish forces in Afghanistan. After meeting a Syrian family on the plane to Belarus, she becomes tied to their plight, getting stuck in a sort of terrifying limbo as Belarus forces push them into Poland and Polish forces push them back.
This first section of the film is the most emotionally and visually intense, as we’re shown the racism and overt cruelty faced by the immigrants. There’s an immediacy to the cinematography; DP Tomasz Naumiuk speaks in the Blu-Ray special features about a photojournalist with border experience serving as consultant on the film. His shooting the film in black and white (the only moments of color are at the open) gives Green Border a timeless quality.
The other three acts further illuminate the story. Guard Janek (Tomasz Włosok) hears a mandatory lecture full of propaganda, dehumanizing the people looking to come into Poland. His wife later repeats that propaganda at the grocery store. The ultrasound his wife receives in a medical office is a sharp contrast to a later ultrasound offered by the activists in the field to a young Somali woman (Joely Mbundu) immigrating with her partner. The activists are limited in the amount of help they can offer, but Julia (Maja Ostaszewska, Schindler’s List, The Haven) feels called to do more.
There’s no lack of talent among the ensemble cast in this drama (even the kids are great), but Ostaszewska and Atai are particular standouts. There’s a deep empathy informing their roles. Among the many themes explored in Green Border is that of the casual cruelty of strangers and the kindness of strangers. Matthew 25:35-40 came to mind as I viewed the activists caring for refugees’ frostbitten feet and feeding them warm soup. By offering the different viewpoints in the four parts of the film, the filmmakers refuse to treat anyone as “other.”
A biting epilogue, showing Poland’s response to Ukrainian refugees, only serves to make Green Border even more stunning and memorable. Holland’s work is chilling and disturbing, yet somehow hopeful. It’s an astonishing film that will remain with me for a long time.
The special features on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray are:
- a Q&A from NYFF with director Holland, DP Naumiuk, and performers Atai and Mbundu. The director speaks of finding inspiration in the real-life horror of the border between Poland and Belarus, writing a script in two months, and filming near Warsaw. She praises the “bright and generous actors.”
- the theatrical trailer
