Venice, September 9. (askanews) – Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” tells in black and white the human drama of people from the Middle East and Africa who are trying to reach Europe across the border between Belarus and Poland, ultimately becoming almost a “pawn” in the political game between promises of easy accession and refusal by two countries.
According to the director, sometimes it seems that humanity has lost the memory of what happened 80 years ago. “The Holocaust was such a shock that when we realized its magnitude, Europe, and not only Europe, the whole world decided that it could not happen again.” “Nationalism is dangerous, it leads to racism, and racism leads to crimes against humanity. And the European Union, in a sense, should become a panacea for this evil. Cooperation, solidarity, sisterhood and brotherhood, human rights and respect for freedom, for democracy and for every individual. This must be the new ideology of a free Europe. And it worked several times, of course, it was never perfect, but the direction, attempts and faith that we have to go were real.”
But some forms of nationalism or racism are dangerous today, and the border depicted in the film is real.
“It’s pretty much the same thing as what I showed in the film,” Holland said, “except instead of barbed wire, there’s a sort of wall built at great expense that’s destroying an ancient forest. But there’s a wall, people are still coming through.” through it, but in greater numbers. They also come through swamps and rivers. It’s just more dangerous now.”
The film tells the quest to reach Europe from three perspectives: an activist, a border guard and a Syrian family.
“I wanted to show different points of view. Everyone is involved in a situation, often against their will, and must make a choice; for me it is important to show the complexity of a situation that is Polish, but at the same time universal. What is happening to migrants is not unique to Poland.”