During her acceptance speech, Holland revealed the complex emotions that gave birth to “Green Border,” articulating that
the film emerged from a blend of anger, despair, and hope.
The commendation event also featured reflections from Ivo Mathe, a distinguished member of the Czech film community and former rector of the Prague Film School. He reminisced about the crucial support the Czech Academy of Film and Television extended during the film’s challenging Polish premiere, a
time when it and its creators faced harsh criticism.
Holland took the opportunity to express her gratitude towards the Czech film industry.
Divided society
“Green Border” depicts the migration crisis from the perspective of refugees, Polish activists and border guards. The main character, a psychologist named Julia, decides to join activists supporting refugees trapped at the Polish-Belarusian border.
No Polish premiere has generated as much controversy in recent years as Agnieszka Holland’s film, which hit theaters just a month before the country’s parliamentary elections, considered by many to be the most important in decades and before which the temperature of political strife in Poland rose to unprecedented heights.
The migrant crisis and the tense situation on Poland’s border with Belarus were among the
main themes of the election campaigns, particularly of the then-ruling party, one of whose basic election slogans was border protection
After the film’s release,
the political dispute around this topic, as well as the film itself, entered a whole new level, sharply dividing Polish society into those seeing “Green Border” as a film about kind-hearted people who help others in need during the war, as well as those for whom it was a direct attack on Polish Border Guard, fitting in with the Russian-Belarusian narrative aimed at dividing Poles and undermining public trust in the uniformed services.
Enthusiasts of the picture saw in “Green Border”
a story about the dramatically difficult choices faced by Poles from different backgrounds - activists, townspeople, uniformed officers, as well as officers - and a kind of moral appeal to both the public and the authorities.
Critics of the film, particularly then-government officials, accused the director of
biased portrayal of the situation at the border and deliberately portraying Border Patrol officers in a bad light. Polish President Andrzej Duda also commented on the film, expressing his regret that the director did not show how “
Poles opened their hearts taking in refugees who are fleeing Russian troops” [referring to the war in Ukraine] but instead “made a film denigrating the Polish services and Poles.”
Czech awards
The prestigious Czech Lion Awards were presented for the 31st time, with Tomas Mashin’s “Brothers” being named the best film of 2023. It is the story of brothers who, after the communists took power in Czechoslovakia, decided to fight back and eventually break through to West Berlin. The film unsuccessfully applied for an Oscar nomination.
The most awards–given in five categories–went to the Czech Television series “Volga” about a driver working for Czechoslovak Television who takes up collaboration with the Communist security service.
