"Green border" shows immigration from a different perspective than is slowly becoming mainstream in Europe, being it Poland (the land in which the film is situated), Holland (in which the anti-immagration party PVV won the election of november 2023) or England (that want to send refugees to Rwanda).
The situation on the Eastern border of Poland is different in this respect that the Belarus of Lukashenko uses refugees as a weapon against the European Union (EU). They lure refugees to Belarus with the promise that the transit to the EU (i.e. Poland) is without any difficulty, which of course is not the case.
"Green border" is a documentary like film that shows the story from different perspectives. These perspectives are those of a Syrian family, Polish border guards and Polish activists.
The episodes about the Syrian family and the border guards are heavy stuf and the episode about the Polish activists is desperately needed to bring back some confidence in humanity.
The conservative Polish government was very angry about the movie and even called director Agnieszka Holland a Nazi. This is of course ridiculous. The anger was most probably directed against the episode about the Polish border guards, but even these episode is not totally negative as its shows that the border guard these episode is about has increasing psychological difficulties with the job he is doing (pushing back refugees to Belarus). The episode is indeed very critical about his superior, telling the border guards that the refugees are not human beings but bullets fired by Lukashenko.
One perspective that is missing is the Belarussian one. One can criticize the harsh behaviour of the Polish border guards but there can be no doubt abourt the fact that Belarus started using the refugees as pawns in a cynical political power struggle.
Also from Western Europe we have to be carefull with too much criticism. The push backs on land by the Polish border guards are illegal, but what about the push backs on sea by Frontex? Moreover, we have easy talk, not bordering on a cynical regime like that of Lukashenko.
Images say more than 1000 words and in this respect the film is in my opinion a must see for those who want to understand more about the immagration crisis. In the Netherlands I had the feeling that the film was in roulation very short. I had to hurry to visit the last performance and was accompanied by only one fellow visitor.
To conclude one point of critic. In the epilogue the film shows how welcome Ukrainian refugees were when in february 2022 their country was invaded by Russia, strongly suggesting that there is a racist element in which refugeest are being supported and which not. I would like to qualify this suggestion. In the first place the aggressor in the Ukranian war is also a threat to Poland, unlike the aggressors in the other conflicts generating refugees (such as Assad in Syria). In the second place has the loyalty with Ukraine cooled down considerably (not in words but in deeds) after two years of war.
