Green Border

Agnieszka Holland depicts the migrant crisis at the EU’s eastern border in a Venice Prize–winning masterpiece that has sparked political turmoil in Poland.

In the summer of 2021, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko orchestrated a refugee crisis as retaliation against the EU. Promising easy passage into the Union, he welcomed refugees from the Middle East and Africa and sent them toward the Polish border, where they were met by hardline border police. In what may be one of the year’s most urgent films, Agnieszka Holland portrays life at the “green border.” She turns her camera on a Syrian refugee family hoping to reach Sweden, a newly awakened human rights activist, and a conflicted border guard. Amid a toxic public debate, Polish government politicians have attacked the film for its alleged lack of nationalism, but above all, Green Border stands as a powerful cinematic fresco of contemporary Europe.

• Jonas Holmberg (from the 2024 programme)