More than 30 years after releasing Europe, Europe (1990), a story that narrated the overwhelming experience of a German writer of Jewish origin who managed to survive Nazi extermination, the veteran Agnieszka Holland looks back at the old continent with pain, anger and helplessness in a film about refugees from the Middle East and Africa who try to reach the European Union and are mistreated at the Polish-Belarusian border like a tennis ball that nobody wants in their country, trapped in a cycle of expulsions without end from one side of the border to the other.
Filmed in powerful black and white, The green border is called to stir consciences, revealing the extreme cruelty and abandonment of beings who dream of a better future and find themselves trapped in the hell of a geopolitical crisis. “The Holocaust vaccine has faded and we have to face a future that may be similar to what we have suffered in the past,” said the 74-year-old filmmaker, who warned of the danger of a new moral collapse, since “ the worst crimes against humanity are happening right now in Europe”, the continent that supposedly embodies “civilization, culture and human rights”.
The film follows the vicissitudes of a large Syrian family who travels by plane to Belarus in 2021 after President Alexander Lukashenko’s deceptive promise to open the border with Poland. They want to get to Sweden later but they run into the blows and the absolute contempt of some guards indoctrinated by the political interests that guard the border in the forest. Without food or drink – an Afghan English teacher is asked 50 euros for some water – they only get a little attention from humanitarian activists who risk their skins helping them with medical care and informing them of their situation if they want to ask asylum. It is clear that Europe does not want them.
Looking serious and blunt in his words, Holland recalled that, since this crisis became known, the Polish government created an exclusion zone preventing access to the media, humanitarian and medical organizations. “I think that some media have done things well although the majority have been cowards and have chosen not to talk about the situation. They are corrupted by polarization or by money and markets.
Two decades after opting for the Golden Lion for Julie Walking home –her debut at the Mostra was in 1992 with Olivier, Olivier– the Polish filmmaker returns to the fray with a shocking and hard-to-watch story that tells of a hell that “is happening still”. For this reason, she asked Europeans to wake up and stop being afraid of losing her comfort zone, something that -according to her- happened with the pandemic. “Covid taught us to submit our freedom to the authorities,” she confessed.
And he wanted to emphasize that it is not a propaganda film, but rather “reflects the complexity of our reality, of how human beings are capable of the best and the worst.” A type of cinema that many directors shy away from, he criticized. “Fiction is not committed to the problems of today’s world.”
Among the actors who accompanied her was Maja Ostaszewska, who plays Julia, a psychologist who decides to help in humanitarian work. For Holland, “it is the real consciousness of history.” The actress has also been an activist in real life and confessed helplessly that, when they finished filming, they went home, while several kilometers away, “there are people waiting for help and it is devastating.” The director concluded her intervention by asking the attendees for a minute of silence “for the 60,000 people who have died trying to reach Europe since 2014.” An overwhelming moment.
