'GREEN BORDER' REVIEW: Black and White, and Willing to Be Grey [5/5]
A Grave Look At the Modern Refugee Experience and Abusive National Propaganda
[Rating 5/5] - dir. Agnieszka Holland - 2023 - Poland/Czech Republic/France/Belgium - R - 2h 32m - Drama
Director Agnieszka Holland opens the film in colour, and then just as quickly drains it away; And like that, the film is moving, pseudo-documentary style. We struggle to keep up with the withered, exhausted Syrian refugees, and the other travelers, struggling to keep up with the guarded, dangerous border guides making quick work of the cold land and forest.
And then we’re alone again; still strangers, but now together. The mercurial guides are gone, and their intense uniformity made us, this group seeking safety, feel close-knit. Soon our cultures cross. Neighbourly favours are exchanged. Babies cry and mothers coo.
Back in the hateful hands of racist guides soon enough, we’re beaten, moved like cattle, lied to, and left in a worse position than when we were picked up. They keep dangling a ladder only to reveal it takes us deeper rather than up, out, and free.
How much more of this? To what end?
No bright colours. No ornately crafted vanity shots. Drain everything but the point to make the point that much more impactful.
Green Border is a correct movie. Yes, every film is a work of art, and is therefore subjective, and unable to be “correct”. I’m talking “correct” in a more self contained sense. Green Border is correct in the sense that it could not be more successful, and the filmmakers could not have made more correct choices, for what it was ultimately trying to be: a stark look at the refugee experience and conversely the unpredictable, often harmful border guards; a stirring, modestly righteous, performed point.
The actors perform in a satisfyingly realistic way; the opposite of how I imagine Hollywood would’ve played it. Surely, there are near-operatic highs and lows, but there they don’t need to be played melodramatically, clad in Viking gear.
Holland knows all this, and is confident enough as a filmmaker to play it as such. All we need are characters and opposing motivations. Then let them spin.
I think a subject this serious deserves a film that is able to appropriately ingest and reflect it properly, and is, for lack of a better word, willing to be “grey”.
Therefore, Holland and Green Border succeed.
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P.S. I considered writing a more in-depth analysis and summary of the plot, but I think the film’s primary focus is to make its point rather than to thrill you with inventive plot developments. It’s about the people. It’s about the journey and its obstacles that allows us to learn more about the people. But ultimately, it’s about the point.
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‘Green Border’ is out now.
Selected Movie Quote: “They count every fucking bullet we fire.”
[Rating 5/5] - dir. Agnieszka Holland - 2023 - Poland/Czech Republic/France/Belgium - R - 2h 32m - Drama