Green Border
In Agnieszka Holland’s brave new enterprise, a family from Syria finds itself stranded on the border between Poland and Belarus.
It is with deep regret that I find myself unable to give this latest film from the Polish veteran Agnieszka Holland a higher rating. I say that because Green Border is an endeavour for which I have the greatest admiration: it's a work of patent humanity that comes from the heart while also being a courageous undertaking. Central to it is deep concern over the inhumane treatment of refugees encouraged to expect a safe passage when seeking asylum in the EU by crossing the border between Belarus and Poland. The film opens in October 2021 on a plane flying into the Belarus capital, Minsk. It is carrying refugees who, following misleading assurances given by the president Aleksandr Lukashenko, expect that on landing they will be able to cross into Poland en route for whatever country they are seeking. Instead, they are to discover that they are unwelcome in Poland being ill-treated by border guards and police with orders to send them back into Belarus. For many there would be repeated endeavours to get across usually ending in forceful ejection and the statement at the close of this dramatised portrayal of the situation declares that as of spring 2023 (that being when the film was completed) people were still dying there.
While the film is a general protest over inhumanity to one’s fellows and can be read as a comment on the treatment of refugees generally, Green Border is also quite clearly a rebuke to the policy of the Polish government which has accordingly and predictably attacked Holland for making a film that they brand as propaganda hostile to her own country. To proceed in spite of that foreseeable response is wholly to the credit of Agnieszka Holland and of her colleagues (she shares the directorial credit with two collaborators and is also one of the three credited scriptwriters). That in itself is reason to applaud but in addition the first third of the film is a magnificent achievement in its own right, a work on the same level as Wajda’s masterpiece Katyn (2007).
In keeping with the film’s title, it opens with an aerial view of green trees but then, in the first of the film’s perfect decisions, it switches to black-and-white and stays that way. Given the bleak nature of the subject-matter, this choice is absolutely in keeping and the photography of Tomasz Naumiuk is admirable. The substantial opening segment of the film follows a Syrian family on a plane headed for Minsk. They are six in number: Bashir (Jamal Altawil), his wife Amina (Dalia Naous), their two young children, Nur (Taim Ajjan) and Ghalia (Talia Ajjan), Bashir's father (Mohamad Al Rashi) and a further child who is a mere baby. Having arrived in Minsk they board a car that is supposed to take them to the boundary and offer a spare seat in it to a fellow refugee met on the plane (this is Leila who is from Afghanistan, a role played by Behi Djamati Ataï). All these roles could not be better cast and the viewer absolutely identifies with these people and increasingly so when their journey is abruptly cut short and they have to make their way on their own. They are exhilarated when they realise that they are now in Poland but the hazards and dangers ahead render that ironical. We know that we are watching a dramatisation but it is so well judged that everything we see carries a deep sense of reality – and it is all the more powerful because the editing of this footage by Pavel Hrdlicka is superb.
This opening segment of Green Border is entitled ‘The Family’ and it is followed by three other such titles in due course: 'The Border Guard’, ‘The Activists’ and ‘Julia’. The intention is to extend the focus to encompass more fully the various aspects of the situation. Thus ‘The Border Guard’ introduces us to a Polish youth, Jan (Tomas Wlosok), who is one such guard whose training involves propaganda that the refugees are no better than animals and are enemies of the state. In time though he will be influenced by doubts as to this held by his pregnant wife (Malwina Buss) and by events in which he himself is caught up. Initially these scenes fit quite well with what has preceded them but then ‘The Activists' suddenly brings in a range of new characters who are seeking to help the homeless refugees. Yet another change of angle introduces Julia (Maja Ostaszewska), a psychologist who lives near the border. Eventually she encounters the activists and is moved to join them.
None of these diverse threads is irrelevant but following them through makes for a number of storylines that tend to fight for our attention even though the second half of the film dispenses with titled sections. However, the family met at the outset are so compelling that it is their story that we want to follow and, although they continue to play a part in the narrative, it is disappointing to find them sidelined to the extent that they are. What had been a splendidly intimate sharp focus has been lost to be replaced by something that feels far too diffuse. The other players who appear are adept enough but, with subsidiary characters unexpectedly returning and new ones being belatedly introduced, the impression becomes that of an overcrowded work which needed far better shaping and perhaps a shorter running time (Green Border lasts for 152 minutes)). Ironically the brilliance of its first quarter is itself partly responsible for the ultimate sense of this being a film that is only a shadow of what it might have been and for a while is.
Original title: Zielona granica.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Behi Djanati Ataï, Tomasz Wlosok, Mohamad Al Rashi, Dalia Naous, Monika Frajczyk, Jasmina Polak, Malwina Buss, Maciej Stuhr, Aboubakr Bensaihi, Piotr Stramowska, Agata Kulesza, Taim Ajjan, Talia Ajjan, Michal Zieliński, Joely Mbundu, Marta Stalmierska.
Dir Agnieszka Holland with Kamila Tarabura and Katarzyna Warzecha, Pro Marcin Wierzchoslawski, Fred Bernstein and Agnieszka Holland, Screenplay Maciej Pisuk, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Agnieszka Holland, Ph Tomasz Naumiuk, Pro Des Katarzyna Jedrzejczyk, Ed Pavel Hrdlicka, Music Frédéric Vercheval, Costumes Katarzyna Lewińska.
Metro Films/Astute Films/Blick Productions/Marlene Film Production/Beluga Tree/Canal+ Polska-Modern Films.
152 mins. Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium/USA/Germany/Turkey/Ireland. 2023. UK and US Rel: 21 June 2024. Cert. 15.
