by James Mottram
Veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, Olivier, Olivier, Mr. Jones) returns with Green Border, one of the most powerful films of the past year. Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival when it premiered in September 2023, this black-and-white refugee drama follows disparate groups of characters, including activists and border guards, as a Syrian family attempts to cross into Poland and the EU from Belarus.
Since releasing the film, the 76-year-old Holland came under attack from her own government, with hardline politicians reacting against the director’s portrayal of brutal guards patrolling the Polish border.
Below, she talks to FilmInk about her experiences making the movie.
What led you to making Green Border?
“The background is quite rich, because I was doing several films about the crimes against humanity in the 20th century, especially Holocaust movies. I was following the migration crisis since 2015, especially closely and what was going on in the Mediterranean and what was going on in the Balkan corridor. [After] the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, I was interested in what kinds of response the right wing and nationalistic populist Polish government will take. And they took the worst possible, in my opinion, with the lie of propaganda and violence against innocent people. And they created some kind of laboratory of the violence, locking the area and forbidding the access to that, not only to the humanitarian organisations and medical organisations and observers, but also to the entire media, except governmental media. They had the freedom not to leave traces of what they have been doing, what they order the border guards and the military to do, but also to save the narration by their official propaganda, which was the only one which had the access to the facts. And so, I decided to make the film; if the state legalised the violence and criminalised the help, it is a moment where I have to sound some kind of alarm.”
What made you shoot it in black and white?
“I like black and white! Aesthetically you can control it much easier. But also, we wanted to have the mixed style; on one hand, to have this documentary-like [look], and on another side, to have the feeling of the timeless horror – the imagery from the Second World War is somehow repeating itself in contemporary places. And the local people… suddenly they had the feeling that they are transformed. They went to the forest they knew and loved and suddenly they’ve been stepping over dead bodies. And so, it was a logical choice.”
Many of your actors were Syrian or Afghan refugees. Was playing out the events of the movie traumatic for them?
“We’ve been very careful with the children, and we had the psychologists and the father all the time on the set. I was surprised how easily they went through that experience. I think that we created the environment, which was very friendly, and they could distance themselves from what they are acting. And for the actors, it’s easier, because it’s their profession. They are great professional actors, so they have the tools – how to separate the emotions and what you have to express. But certainly, it was different from other acting tasks or gigs they had, and they felt it as well. But they’ve been very motivated, they wanted to do it, they felt that they have the chance to give the voice to the voiceless, and to give their faces to the faceless, and it was a great thing to do for them.”
Directors have tackled refugee dramas a great deal of late. Is it time we paid attention to this topic?
“I think that the refugees issue, and migrants in general, is one of the biggest issues and challenges for the future of Europe and probably of the world. I think the majority of societies are rather eager to choose the comfort. But I’m afraid that by the end of the day, it could be that we’ll have no comfort and no values anymore. It’s like Churchill said about Chamberlain coming back from the Munich Conference: you wanted to avoid the war, and you lost the corner, and you will have the war. I’m afraid that we are lacking the imagination – and we and the migrants will pay quite a high price for that.”
You experienced strong negative reactions in Poland to the film. How did that feel?
“I was expecting the worst. But I wasn’t expecting that it would be led directly and personally by the highest politicians. I expected the hateful campaign from the official media, the right wing medias, and the Neo-fascist media. I didn’t expect that the President of the country, the Minister of Justice, the Prime Minister, the head of the ruling party, everybody will jump… and it creates such a hateful campaign against myself and some actors and the movie. But it was directed against myself very strongly, which was okay, but it became a bit dangerous because it was a very heated time before the elections, and I started to receive a lot of death threats and distress like that. Finally, when premiering the film in Poland in September [2023], we decided to take security, and I had two really big security guards with me when I was traveling all over the country. It was a new experience for me, to be afraid on the street that somebody can jump me. But it passed quite quickly, and it was recompensed by the very, very big reaction… and the great box office for the film and also the very emotional and sincere reactions during the meetings after screenings.”
Are you hopeful? Or is it still a very bleak time?
“Well, I think that we are going towards a bleak time, I’m afraid. Maybe yes. I think that more and more monsters take over our planet, and they will be not ready to give up too soon.”
Where do you get your courage from?
“I don’t know. I think you are just born like that! I really believe that the activist becomes the heroes of our times. I’m very disappointed by the political class. But at the same time, the political class lost the courage… and even democracy doesn’t give the tools anymore to stand for what you believe in and to now fight for that.”
You’re now working on a biopic about author Franz Kafka. Did you find your actor yet to play him?
“I found a wonderful young actor in Germany, Idan Weiss, a German Jew, who not only looks like Kafka, but has a tender mystery. It’s really wonderful. I’m very excited about it, but it will be apparently more challenging even than Green Border. It’s so difficult to approach Kafka’s mystery. His own story is one thing, but why he is and was who he was, and why he is so important in many ways… we don’t know.”
Was he always a writer you liked?
“When I was 17, I went to the film school in Prague in Czechoslovakia, and it was because of Franz Kafka. So, he’s my companion since my youth and finally now I have the occasion to try to [bring his story to life on the screen].”
Green Border is in cinemas from 28 November.