Green Border (2023)

This epic and gripping picture by veteran Polish director and cowriter Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, The Secret Garden, Mr. Jones) takes on the humanitarian crisis of Muslim refugees making their way from Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to sanctuary in Sweden (or Poland, or anywhere). The problem is getting there. As Muslims entering the EU they face hostility and prejudice at every point, particularly at this brutal “green border” region that Green Border focuses on between Belarus and Poland. It is heavily forested and the terrain can be rugged and swampy. Both Belarus and Poland have semi-official “pushback” policies, which means the refugees are continually moved back and forth across the barbed wire by violent border patrols. Laws obviously don’t matter here. Green Border offers a sprawling set of characters and stories, focusing on the border patrols and activists working on the scene as well as the refugees. Of course it’s worst for the refugees, but the activists are laboring under dire conditions too and we see that even the border patrols, or those not particularly psychopathic, are under tremendous contradictory pressures themselves. The stories and situations are complex as they unravel in this swirling stew. One thing keeps leading to another. It’s often nighttime. The screenplay is rich with the difficulties of individual circumstances, a constant high-wire act. It bears elements of The Grapes of Wrath in the story of one family. The black and white film stock only makes it more stark, the shadows are deeper, darker, and the glimmers of light more fleeting and elusive. It’s hard to watch in places because Holland’s characterizations are drawn so fine these people just come alive even as they are grievously wounded or worse. The middle-aged Leila (Behi Djanati Atai) haunts me, fleeing Afghanistan from the specter of the Taliban. Her big glasses, her deft use of her cell phone, her compassion and generosity, and her fate are deeply felt, searing. The final scenes compare all we have seen in a long movie with the more recent treatment of 2 million Ukrainian refugees after the Russia-Ukraine War started. They are welcomed to Poland even as the inhumane treatment and atrocities continue on the green border. Heartbreaking portrait of a horrible situation but the movie is never less than enthralling. Double feature with Come and See, if you can stand it.