Agnieszka Holland’s ‘Green Border’ Debuts Clip Ahead of World Premiere in Venice Competition (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The political backlash surrounding Agnieszka Holland’s Venice Special Jury Prize-winning refugee drama “Green Border” hasn’t kept the movie from being a hot seller. The film explores the injustice and terror perpetrated at the Polish-Belarusian border from the perspective of refugees, Polish activists and border guards.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In Polish actor-turned-filmmaker Kasia Smutniak’s documentary “Walls,” she undertakes an uncertain and risky journey into the red zone — a dangerous strip of land in Poland that runs parallel to the Belarus border. Crossing the long border is a 115-mile steel barricade built to repel migrants from entering the European Union in search of refuge. Inside the red zone is Poland’s dense Białowieża Forest, known for its swamps, wolf packs, and desperate migrants trapped in political limbo.

A family of Syrian refugees and an English teacher from Afghanistan receive about five minutes of joy in veteran Polish auteur Agnieszka Holland’s otherwise grim and harrowing refugee drama, “Green Border.” As they land in a plane to Belarus, hoping to cross into Poland and eventually Sweden for asylum where refugee status awaits, their eyes beam with optimism as a new land of promise reflects on their smiling faces.

Holly rings her school to tell them she is staying at home. She isn’t sick. She just can’t bring herself to go. “Bad things are going to happen today,” she says just above a whisper, her voice cracking.

Speaking at the Venice Film Film Festival winners’ press conference, Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos said he was “personally very disappointed” that his lead actress Emma Stone couldn’t be with him to enjoy the film’s Golden Lion win, but that he also “understands the cause”, referring to the SAG-AFTRA strike which has kept the actress away.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor London- and Paris-based Film Constellation has boarded sales on 2D family animated feature “Carmen,” a contemporary adaptation of the opera, to be directed by 2023 Annecy Film Festival winner Sébastien Laudenbach. Variety revealed first details of the project last year exclusively.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Memento Distribution has picked up French distribution rights to Gabor Reisz’s ‘Explanation for Everything’ following its world premiere in Horizons competition at the Venice Film Festival. The deal was closed by Films Boutique.

Christopher Vourlias Three decades ago, just a few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in a new era of hope and promise in Europe, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland made the historical drama “Europa, Europa,” which follows the harrowing ordeal of a Jewish teenager who goes to impossible lengths to survive the Holocaust. The title, says Holland, was meant to express “the duality of the European tradition: Europe of our aspirations, the cradle of culture and civilization, the rule of law and democracy, human rights, equality and fraternity, but on the other hand, Europe as the cradle of the worst crimes against humanity, selfishness and hatred.” Throughout her career, the three-time Academy Award nominee has found inspiration in “the great and tragic subjects of the 20th century,” powered by the conviction that “history is relevant, that what happened is relevant,” Holland tells Variety.

Christopher Vourlias The fall festival circuit features a powerhouse lineup of Polish cinema that showcases an industry in full stride, with hard-hitting topical dramas, award-season hopefuls and potential box-office breakouts highlighting the strength and diversity of filmmaking in a country with a storied cinematic history. Among the hotly anticipated premieres at this week’s Toronto Film Festival is “The Peasants,” a lavish, hand-painted animated feature from the filmmaking team behind Oscar nominee and box-office sensation “Loving Vincent.” Meanwhile, three-time Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland will be on hand for the North American premiere of “Green Border,” her searing portrayal of Europe’s refugee crisis that just bowed in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Marta Balaga Controversy over Venice title “Green Border” continues to heat up as director Agnieszka Holland gave an ultimatum to Poland’s Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro following his comments about her film. According to the statement shared with Variety, Holland has hired the lawyers Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram and Michał Wawrynkiewicz.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Film Constellation has sealed a first raft of pre-sales in key territories on French female-led revenge feature “Animale,” directed by Emma Benestan (“Fragile”) and starring César winner Oulaya Amamra (“Divines”). The pre-sales include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom) and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon). Wild Bunch Distribution will release “Animale” in French theaters next year.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Ukrainian director Anna Buryachkova, awaiting the Venice premiere of her new film “Forever-Forever,” will soon turn to documentary “Will We Feel Again,” she revealed to Variety in Italy. The film will see her reunite with Natalia Libet, producing for 2Brave Productions. “In Ukraine, this is the time when you make documentaries, obviously.

Even if the critical reactions have been mixed, Italian films have proven much stronger than usual at this year’s Venice Film Festival, with a notable resurgence of genre filmmaking in the likes of Adagio and Enea. Ironically, Matteo Garrone, the one local director in the selection whose actual stock in trade is genre of all stripes — gangster realism (Gomorrah, Dogman), satirical comedy (Reality), and baroque fantasy (Tale of Tales) — arrived this year with a blisteringly topical drama that might be his most traditional, and best, yet.

Christopher Vourlias Three-time Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland has called out a hard-right Polish minister who compared her refugee drama “Green Border” to Nazi propaganda, accusing him of “hate speech” and insisting that the Eastern European nation’s right-wing ruling party is “afraid” of her film’s damning portrayal of its response to the refugee crisis. The movie is competing for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this week. “We expected that they would be furious.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first trailer for Liam Neeson crime-thriller In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which debuts tomorrow at the Venice Film Festival.

As if to come to the aid of her national cinema after the debacle that was Roman Polanski’s The Palace, Poland’s Agnieska Holland, soon to turn 75, restores some of her homeland’s cultural dignity with a devastating exposé that angrily, and quite brilliantly, questions its humanity and political integrity. At 144 minutes, and in black and white, it is not exactly a Trojan horse, and its moral rigor does not come with a spoonful of sugar. But Green Border earns every second of that running time, and with a focus and energy that belies its directors age. Awards-wise, this may prove to be the international feature to beat.

Jessica Kiang While you’re still in the vice-like grip of its multilevel narrative it may not feel like it, but a film like Agnieszka Holland’s bruisingly powerful new refugee drama ultimately comes from a place of optimism. It is optimistic to expect and nurture of a reaction of potentially motivating outrage, when you portray the brutality of which human individuals, at the behest of human institutions, are capable. It is optimistic to believe that, faced with extraordinary cruelty, a viewer’s ordinary decency will be compelled to rise and rebel.

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla got a rousing response at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Monday evening. The pic, a biopic of Priscilla Presley, who was in attendance for the move based on the memoir she co-authored, scored a 7-minute, 45-second ovation.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The international trailer for “A Whole Life,” which will have its world premiere in the Gala section of the Zürich Film Festival (Sept. 28 to Oct. 8), has debuted with Variety (below).

Christopher Vourlias Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland follows the harrowing ordeal of a refugee family trapped on the margins of the E.U. in “Green Border,” a gripping drama from the prolific Polish director that plays in competition at the Venice Film Festival.