ERÖFFNUNGSFILM 2024: GREEN BORDER

In the organizer's words:

2021: Lured by the promises of Belarusian dictator Lukashenko, Bashir and Amina and their Syrian family, like many other refugees, have booked a flight to Minsk to cross the green border to Poland and then to their relatives in Sweden. But the promise turns into a trap. Together with thousands of others, the family is stuck in the swampy no-man's land between Poland and Belarus, driven back and forth by the border guards of both countries in the strictly cordoned-off restricted area, cut off from any help.

Here, on the edge of the immense Białowieża forests, the paths of different people's lives intersect. Jan is a Polish border guard officer, he comes from the area himself, his wife is pregnant and they are building a house. The escalation at the border increasingly calls the certainties of his life into question. Psychotherapist Julia has moved to eastern Poland after a personal stroke of fate in order to make a new home in the seclusion of the borderland. Without having planned it, she becomes part of a group of activists who, despite the state ban, try to provide the refugees stuck in the woods with the basic necessities. They meet Bashir and Amina, who are fighting for their family's survival every day.

In the midst of this pristine landscape on the green border, a polyphonic drama unfolds between hope and despair, cynicism and humanity. It is impossible to look away. It is a matter of life and death.

"Agnieszka Holland has not made a manifesto, but a highly humane, clear-sighted and wise film that does not make it easy for itself in its observations. Neither are the rescuing activists holy saviors, nor are the border guards brute beasts. Holland shows their moral scruples, the disputes, the emotional trigger points of these people, their despair and hope for a different world. "Green Border" makes you angry because it shows what is. (...) All of Europe should see it, because all of Europe is present in this film, with its light and its very dark sides." AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS