The Green Border is a tough but important watch. It can be difficult to get through at times, but delivers important messages and great performances.
The Green Border follows the humanitarian crisis on the Belarus border – though it takes its time, it allows us to view every perspective of this crisis and be emotionally dismantled by the end of the film.
The film specifically follows a family of Syrian refugees but evolves into many more perspectives, all of which collide in an interesting way. The messages of this film are very simple, it is a commentary on the treatment of refugees and the poor treatment by border guards.
This message is never convoluted in the slightest, the contrary is done because of how many different perspectives we see. Being able to see not only the perspective of refugees but also a psychologist, played by Maja Ostaszewska, who joins an activist group and a young border guard, played by Tomasz Wlosok.
These groups of people are all intertwined to ask or more so propose an idea of humanity but from the get-go the audience seemingly knows the right answer. Though everything on a political level seems to be a given, the performances are why the film continuously works.
Jalal Altawil plays the father and though he has the least amount of dialogue in the main family, he convincingly delivers a sense of dread and desperation for this living hell to end.
The actor successfully bottles up so much emotion that though is never released, is always communicated. Behi Djanati Atai and Dalia Naous play these mother-like figures in the family and even though Atai’s character isn’t related to the family, the performances feel so tightly coordinated and executed that no one misses a beat.
The children of the family don’t have a very big role but they manage to keep up with all of the great performances around them. Finally the 2 characters no part of the family played by Maja Ostaszewska and Tomasz Wlosok – these actors came out of nowhere for me.
The Green Border is split up into multiple parts, the first focusing on the family, the rest on other characters, finally culminating into a crossroad for everyone involved. Since the psychologist and young soldier are not introduced until later, they came as a massive surprise and though yes their involvement in the story itself elevated the story we already had, the performances felt so natural in this long and dark story that it kept everything engaging.
The filmmaker also does not rely on pure brutality of the humanitarian crisis which made the film much more bearable to watch. For some the over-the-top gore might make a greater impact but the mental breakdowns and torn attachments between characters had lasting emphasis on me.
As great as the The Green Border got, the biggest flaw is a detrimental one – the film is not paced well. The runtime can be excused because though the film is never grand in a visual arc, the topic needs time to be explored. On the other hand the pacing always felt off because of the different chapters the film was split into.
Luckily The Green Border makes up for that slightly with the ‘run-and-gun’ shooting style – helping the scenes but more specifically the dialogue flow through the 2 hour and 30 minute runtime.
On a technical level a lot of the film succeeds but the biggest style choice did not seem very necessary. The entire film is in black and white and at least for me, it did not add anything particularly special. Especially since the film is distinctly digital, the creative choice was one that doesn’t make much sense.
Aside from the color choice – every other technical aspect is amazing. As mentioned earlier the shooting style is one that feels like we are with every character. The score is barely noticeable but it works because that choice helps us be fully immersed into the tension of every scene.
At the end of the day the film is tough to get through – there is so much to take in but the performances and directorial stamp are so prominent that I could not help but to stare at the screen.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
NEXT: Maestro: The Perfect Study Of Love
About The Green Border
A Syrian family leaves the violence of their country behind, hoping to cross from Belarus into Poland and then onto the safe haven of Sweden. But, like so many lost souls, they end up caught in a political maelstrom, demonized by the Polish government and press and used as pawns in an inhumane, deadly border game.
This harrowing, urgent drama from the veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa; Spoor, NYFF55) constructs an intricate account of the contemporary global humanitarian crisis, expanding out to encompass the interconnected lives of security patrol officers, activist lawyers, and civilians who put themselves on the line for strangers.
The Green Border played at the 2023 NYFF.
Aryan is an aspiring content creator and journalist who loves all genres of movies. He is passionate about discussing and having conversations about anything and everything pop culture related.