Green Border
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland’s new film is a tough watch: a two-and-a-half hour dissection of the inhumanities encountered by Syrian refugees at Poland’s border with Belarus. We see their plight not just through their own eyes, but also from the perspective of a border guard, struggling with his conscience, and from the viewpoint of humanitarian activists who are determined to outwit the Polish government’s harsh stance on migrants. They see these refugees as pawns in a broader geopolitical game being played by Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus. The final coda, of Ukrainian refugees fleeing across the Polish border just a year after the events depicted, and being welcomed by some of the same activists and border guards, calls out the racism that motivated the Polish government’s actions.
