'Green Border': Venice Review | Reviews | Screen – Screen International

Dir: Agnieszka Holland. Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium. 2023. 152mins

A Syrian household. An Afghan girl. A younger border guard. A 50-something Polish psychologist-turned-activist. All discover themselves in and across the inhospitable forest that marks the border between Belarus and Poland on this excellent multi-stranded drama from Agnieszka Holland. There was no scarcity of movies that take care of Europe’s present refugee disaster during the last decade or so. Nonetheless, this image, with its supremely assured dealing with of a fractured, fragmented construction and its twin driving forces of compassion and fury, is undoubtedly probably the greatest.

Beneficial properties appreciable energy from the uncooked authenticity of the performances

There’s an urgency and immediacy to the filmmaking – it’s shot nearly documentary-style in putting black and white – that units the image aside from a lot of Holland’s latest work. Not like the good-looking, garlanded interval dramas resembling Charlatan (2020) and Mr. Jones (2019), Inexperienced Border feels bracingly up to date in method. The crackling anger of the piece, the livid power and the searing timeliness of the topic ought to make this a competition favorite (going ahead, it screens in TIFF and New York) and a possible awards contender. Theatrically, optimistic phrase of mouth could go a way in direction of overcoming viewers fatigue in relation to migrant tales.

Refugees have lengthy been dehumanised by the governments of nations that would like to not wrangle with the ethical penalties of refusing them entry. However the present state of affairs between Belarus and Poland has gone past that. In a transfer by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko calculated to impress Europe, refugees have been lured to the Belarusian border by propaganda that guarantees a secure and simple passage into the EU. As a substitute, they discover themselves met by Polish border guards who’ve been conditioned to consider them not as human, however as weapons within the armoury of Lukashenko and Putin. “They’re stay bullets,” says a senior guard throughout a rabble-rousing tackle designed to harness the hate already lurking within the hearts of his squad.

Within the room is Janek (Tomasz Wlosok), a husband and soon-to-be father who’s distracted by repeated telephone calls from his closely pregnant spouse. Janek wears the uniform however he’s more and more troubled by the simple cruelty of a few of his colleagues. He numbs his doubts with home-distilled hooch and crass informal banter.

On a flight to the Belarusian capital Minsk, in the meantime, hopeful refugees give thanks for the secure route that they’ve been promised into Europe. Amongst them is a household of Syrians: Bashir (Jalal Altawil), his spouse Amina (Dalia Naous), their three youngsters and Bashir’s aged father (Mohamad Al Rashi). Leila (Behi Djanati Atai), an Afghan girl travelling alone, joins the household on their journey to the Polish border. However, removed from the simple route that they’d been promised, they, like a whole bunch of different determined refugees, discover themselves pawns in a geopolitical standoff, hustled backwards and forwards throughout the border and struggling more and more inhumane therapy from the uniformed thugs. A small, devoted band of activists, whom Julia (Maja Ostaszewska) has lately joined, do their finest to assist the migrants, however are certain by a restrictive authorized framework that blocks them from affecting a lot in the way in which of actual change.

It’s a bruising and typically gruelling watch, which positive aspects appreciable energy from the uncooked authenticity of the performances (a number of of the solid are precise refugees) and a sober, sparse, cello-heavy rating. But it surely’s Holland’s masterly dealing with of mise en scene that’s most impactful. In a single intricately layered sequence, the kindness of the activists treating traumatised refugees with soup and succour performs out within the background whereas, within the foreground, a health care provider pleads for an ambulance from the detached emergency companies. In one other, the Syrian household sits, bleeding and filthy, in entrance of a wall that bears a mural of the EU flag, in a pointed and damning indictment of European Union inaction in an ever-growing disaster.

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