WARSAW, Poland — Right-wing Polish leaders voiced their strong opposition to a new feature film directed by Agnieszka Holland as it was set to premiere in Poland on Friday. They accused the film of defaming Poland by exploring the migration crisis along the border with Belarus.
The film, titled “Green Border,” recently won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Despite their criticism, most of the Polish government officials have not seen the film.
Holland, who was born in Poland but currently resides in France, depicts the suffering of migrants from the Middle East in a harrowing exploration of the forests and swamps along the border between Belarus and Poland. Some of the film’s fictional characters portray Polish security officials mistreating the migrants.
Poland’s most influential politician, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, held a press conference on Friday specifically to denounce the film. He claimed that the Polish border guards, army, and police were portrayed in a disgraceful manner. Kaczynski accused Holland of supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged plan and labeled the film as “shameful, repulsive, and disgusting.”
Holland asserts that the film does not make a collective assessment of the Polish army or uniformed services, nor is it intended to slander Poland. She argues that “Green Border” simply avoids the black-and-white propaganda surrounding migration and shows how all people, whether uniformed officers, refugees, or helpers, behave differently in different situations. Holland and producer Marcin Wierzchoslawski also claimed that fragments of the film were manipulated and stolen by certain media outlets, resulting in a distorted image of the film.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, led by Kaczynski, is emphasizing its anti-immigration policies ahead of the upcoming national election. However, the government’s credibility on immigration matters has been undermined by a fraud scandal involving visas issued at Polish consulates in Asia and Africa in exchange for bribes.
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro compared “Green Border” to Nazi propaganda, and President Andrzej Duda supported this claim by stating that some border guards were refusing to see the film using the expression “only pigs sit in the cinema.” This statement refers back to World War II, when people under German Nazi occupation in Poland went to movie theaters to inadvertently watch Nazi propaganda.
Holland, whose Jewish father lost his parents in the Holocaust, intends to sue Ziobro for offensive comparisons to Nazi propaganda. The heavy-handed approach of Polish officials toward the film raises concerns about censorship and restrictions on free expression.
The Polish Interior Ministry recently instructed cinemas in Poland that receive state support to run a clip promoting border guards before screenings of “Green Border” in an attempt to counter what the deputy interior minister called “untruths and distortions.”
The film, while fictional, sheds light on the crisis that has unfolded at the Poland-Belarus border over the past two years as migrants from the Middle East and Africa attempt to enter the European Union without authorization. Polish border guards have either pushed migrants back into Belarus or detained them in closed centers, resulting in deaths in the forests and swamps of the region. Furthermore, Poland has constructed a tall steel wall to prevent unauthorized entry.
Through the stories of a Syrian family, a Polish border guard, and Polish activists aiding refugees, “Green Border” portrays the situation at the border. EU officials have accused Belarus, a Russian ally, of manufacturing the crisis to engage in hybrid warfare by encouraging migrants to use the country’s frontier with Poland to enter the EU.
The Directors Guild of America, along with other film industry groups, has come to Holland’s defense, championing creative expression and condemning the attacks against her.
