GREEN BORDER

A Syrian family and an Afghan woman named Leila have travelled to Belarus, promised an easy route into the European Union. Instead, they are pushed back and forth in the forest on the Polish border: Belarusian border guards drive them into Poland, Polish border guards drive them back. Jan, a young Polish border guard, carries out the orders and begins to break under them. Julia, a psychotherapist who lives nearby, joins activists who help the people in the forest at their own risk. “Green Border” by Agnieszka Holland, a Polish film from 2023, tells the crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border from several perspectives that cross paths in the forest.

The Polish director Agnieszka Holland shot in black and white, in just 24 days of filming in spring 2023, drawing on conversations with border guards and refugees; co-produced with Czechia, France and Belgium. It premiered in competition in Venice in 2023, winning the Special Jury Prize. In Poland, the government attacked the film ahead of its cinema release, and the justice minister compared it to Nazi propaganda; Holland took legal action in response. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2023 as the Special German Premiere.

Shown at the 2023 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2023 · Film Archive