Director Agnieszka Holland Talks Fear Of Violence As She Travels To Poland With 24-Hour Security For Launch Of Migrant Drama ‘Green Border’ Amid Political Backlash
21.09.2023 - 20:57
/ deadline.com
Director Agnieszka Holland has been forced to take 24-hour security protection as she returns to her native Poland for the theatrical release of migrant drama Green Border on Friday (September 22) in the face of a fierce political backlash and online hate campaign.
“The situation is very dynamic and keeps changing. I’m trying to keep a sane mind but it’s dangerous. This campaign could provoke real violence, not only verbal violence. It only takes one deranged person to take it seriously,” Holland told Deadline as she travelled to a pre-screening event on Thursday.
Green Border tackles the migrant crisis along Poland’s thickly forested border with Belarus, which Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is widely accused of engineering by encouraging people to travel to his country on the promise they can easily cross over to Poland and the European Union.
The film has touched a raw nerve with Poland’s ruling right-wing, anti-immigrant coalition government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, for its scenes showing Polish border guards pushing exhausted, bewildered migrants back over the border into Belarus.
Green Border acknowledges the roots of the crisis but asks tough questions about a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment and loss of humanity, not just in Poland but across the whole of Europe.
Holland said that parties connected to the government had “stolen” a print of the film and then created news packages highlighting only the scenes showing border guard violence, when the picture covers the issue from a number of different angles.
“It actually very nuanced,” she said of the film. “It shows one or two acts of sadistic behaviour, but the rest is regular people who are trapped in some type of moral limbo.