Green Border (2023)

September 19, 2024 5:56 AM

[TRAILER] In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called "green border" between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped, constantly forced from one side of the border to the other. Thirty years after her film Europa Europa, Agnieszka Holland's Green Border challenges viewers to reflect on the moral choices that fall to ordinary people every day.

Starring Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Tomasz Włosok, Behi Djanati Atai, Mohamad Al Rashi, Dalia Naous, Maciej Stuhr, Agata Kulesza.

A film in English, Polish, Arabic, and French. Polish title: Zielona granica.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland .Written by Maciej Pisuk, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko, Agnieszka Holland. Produced by Marcin Wierzchoslawski, Fred Bernstein, Agnieszka Holland. Cinematography by Tomasz Naumiuk. Edited by Pavel Hrdlička. Music by Frédéric Vercheval.

93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently available for digital rental or purchase in the US. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (2 comments total)

Sad and searing, unrelenting, but not exploitatively so. Although this covers entirely different subject matter, I would compare the tone to Ken Loach's work in I, Daniel Blake or Sorry We Missed You. It's plainly presented in a way that dares you to try to turn your head. Holland isn't trying to make a sweeping epic or a bold artistic statement. She is attempting to show you something awful that she regrets you must indeed see.

So many terrible things happen in this, and yet the most heartbreaking part may be the coda, after the story, in which the very same Poles who forced the brown, Muslim Syrian/Iranian refugees back and forth over the border instantly open their arms and their hearts when their white Christian neighbors from Ukraine need the exact same type of assistance.

I saw this a few weeks ago and it has lived in my head ever since.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:02 AM on September 19 [4 favorites]

Agnieszka Holland just did a Criterion closet!
posted by gwint at 8:58 PM on September 20