Another game on the suffering of refugees The issue raised in the film made me very interested. First of all, because the 8-month incident on the Belarusian-Polish border is familiar firsthand and at one time he closely followed it, as he participated in humanitarian assistance. It is all the more disappointing for the way in which the filmmakers tried to cash in, by the way, very successfully, on someone else’s misfortune – the trouble of refugees. And at the same time, once again “bit” the “Putin and Lukashenko regime” (quoted from the film). A little from the history of the plot: in the spring and autumn of 2021, several thousand illegal migrants gathered at the border, but they were not going to go back, nor, of course, let them into the cherished EU. It came to a humanitarian catastrophe, a crisis of international scale. And, of course, Poland took advantage of it in its own way. And then, and as you can see, now. It was hardly possible to count on anything else, given that the famous “Russophobic” was the director of the “Green Border”. Agnieszka Holland.
To say that the film is highly politicized is to say nothing. The very manner of shooting, black and white pseudo-documentary shots were supposed to recreate a sense of naturalness and truthfulness of what was happening, only the truthfulness here is no more than 20%. Why I decided to write a review, although it is not very pleasant to review this “creation”. From the real state of affairs there is almost nothing - this is the truth objectionable to Agnieszka Holland. Just google the internet, look at footage from that time. And compare. Although an attentive viewer will catch hints in the dialogue between the head of the Polish border checkpoint and his subordinates: There should be no accidents in our shift, no corpses. If that happens, you know what to do.” But there are a lot of arguments about the “hybrid war between Putin and Lukashenko” (another quote from the film) and obscene language against the same Belarusians, Russians and their leadership. Apparently, constantly bringing such shots, the international film crew had to drill into the European and American (the film participated not only in Cannes, but also in a number of prestigious US film festivals) the viewer about who is really “bad” in this story.
To be fair, it is worth noting that the creators of the Green Border tried to look at what is happening from many angles: ordinary Poles, border guards, of course, the refugees themselves (but not Belarusians). Only the idea of who was to blame was always on the red line. It is a pity that there is no provision for large-scale humanitarian aid to Belarusian refugees. Belarusians are known for that. Apparently, it was very important for someone to destroy this image. Therefore, the Belarusian riot police in the frame is only engaged in beating up illegal immigrants, extorting huge sums of money from them (I wonder where they got them from?), mocking in every possible way. While one of the illegals in the episode claims: “Poles are good, and Belarusians are ...” (another quote in the 35th minute of the film). Is there any censorship in European cinema? After all, the film, by the way, is the winner of the Cannes Film Festival.
An attentive viewer will see a lot of inconsistencies in the film: cell phones from illegal immigrants in the forest do not catch communication, but if they go to the nearest field and ask for a phone from a Polish peasant, he will definitely work. Illegal refugees are very eager to enter the EU, but they are very complaining when Belarusian border guards, under cover of night, literally force them out there with evil dogs and batons. What's the logic? This is another story about lies.
One way or another, what began as a story about the inhuman ordeals of refugees eventually turned into a politicized pseudo-documentary about evil Belarusians and the “Putin and Lukashenka regime” – the last hour and a half of the plot is all about this, and they use all possible scenes, both suitable and inappropriate. Apparently, the director and one of the authors of the script of the film Agnieszka Holland was not convinced by the reaction of the UN Secretary General to that migration crisis (again, you can Google).
It is a shame for how they distorted the story of unprecedented courage and noble help of those who did not want to stay away, but there were both Belarusians and Poles among them.