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Past Film/Video | Contemporary Screen
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Veteran political filmmaker Agnieszka Holland’s powerful refugee narrative Green Border offers both horror and hope—and helped sway a real-life election.
At the “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from North Africa and the Middle East seeking a new life in the European Union are caught in a geopolitical maelstrom where they become the pawns of the powerful. From the lives of the border guards to the activist lawyers, Holland’s film singularly sketches the larger systems manipulating these individuals searching for safety. The legendary director (Europa Europa, The Secret Garden) won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival with this harrowing, urgent drama. In Polish, Arabic, English, and French with English subtitles. (147 mins., DCP)
Holland rushed Green Border to Polish theaters last autumn in advance of the significant national election. The reigning authoritarian Law and Justice party, who built its platform on anti-immigrant hysteria, attacked the film and its director. Government officials called the film “anti-Polish” and the justice minister compared Holland to Joseph Goebbels. These were clear signs that the Polish government was clinging on to a losing campaign—they were voted out of office a month after the film was released.
IMAGE CAPTIONGreen Border, courtesy of Kino Lorber Films.
Writer/director Agnieszka Holland began her filmmaking career in the 1970s and is now one of the preeminent film directors in Poland’s storied cinema history. Born in the aftermath of World War II and trained in Prague, Holland’s early films have elements of the Czech New Wave with their focus on political allegory and the internalization of oppressive social systems on the part of the individual. Holland frequently confronts fascism or protofascism in her films and tracks its effects on the behavior of her characters. Her films Bitter Harvest, Europa Europa, and In Darkness were nominated for Academy Awards.
FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BYNational Endowment for the ArtsOhio Humanities
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BYRohauer Collection FoundationWEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BYOhio Department of DevelopmentGreater Columbus Arts CouncilThe Wexner FamilyInstitute of Museum and Library ServicesOhio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the ArtsCampusParcOhio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery ThemeThe Columbus FoundationAxium PackagingNationwide FoundationVorys, Sater, Seymour, and PeaseADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BYMike and Paige CraneNancy KramerOhio State Energy PartnersOhio History Fund/Ohio History ConnectionLarry and Donna JamesDavid Crane and Elizabeth DangBruce and Joy SollRebecca Perry Damsen and Ben TowleJones DayAlex and Renée Shumate
Past Film/Video
Green Border
