Agnieszka Holland’s 'Green Border’ Debut Clip – Variety

Courtesy of Agatha Kubis

Triple Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland’s „Green Border” has been sold to multiple territories, premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival before traveling to the Toronto Film Festival and New York Film Festival. Variety We were given access to an exclusive clip from the film and Holland’s notes on the production, which we quote from below, again exclusively.

Films Boutique, the film’s international sales agency, has sold the film to the following distributors and territories: Versin in Spain, Panda Lichtspiel in Austria, Kino Bavasaris for the Baltics, Art Fest in Bulgaria, Magic Box in Slovakia, Fivia in Slovenia, Vertigo in Hungary and Bio Paradise in Iceland.

As previously announced, Condor (France), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy), Leopardo Films (Portugal), MCF Megacom (Former Yugoslavia), Kino Swit (Poland) and AQS (Czech Republic/Slovakia).

„Green Border” is set in the treacherous and swampy forest between Belarus and Poland known as the „Green Border,” where refugees trying to reach the European Union from the Middle East and Africa are caught in a cynically engineered geopolitical crisis. By Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

In an attempt to galvanize Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy access to the EU. Soldiers in this hidden war, the lives of newly minted activist Julia, who renounces her comfortable life, John, a young border guard and a Syrian family are intertwined.

Seen exclusively in his yet-to-be-released director’s notes VarietyHolland writes: “30 years ago, I made a film called 'Europa, Europa,’ about a Jewish boy who, in order to survive the Holocaust, became first a Stalinist communist youth and then a soldier of the Wehrmacht. A student at an exclusive Hitler Youth school, the young became a Nazi.

„It was 1989 and the Berlin Wall came down. The double title expresses the duality of the European tradition: the Europe of our aspirations, the cradle of culture and civilization, the rule of law and democracy, human rights, equality and fraternity, but on the other hand, the cradle of Europe. The cradle of humanity, selfishness and hatred. worst crimes.”

Holland compares Ukrainian refugees to immigrants from outside Europe. “Once again, many refugees roam the forests on the Polish-Belarusian border; Tortured once again, driven to Belarus, dies. The repression of activists who rescue them is intensifying, and the behavior of Polish border guards — the same people who carry Ukrainian children across the border with tenderness and empathy — is becoming more brutal. The difference in treatment of these two different groups of war refugees brutally exposes what we try to hide: our European racism.”

„The people and events we depict are not filled with heroism and patriotism. The fundamental difference between the refugees in our story and those who cross the borders of Ukraine today is simple: the color of their skin. They all faced a choice that none of them was ready for, but they had to face. The protagonists of other strands of our story also faced such a choice. Different perspectives come together to create as complete a picture as possible.

„In a drop of water, I think our European duality is reflected – the duality I had in mind 30 years ago when I gave my film the double title 'Europe, Europa’.”