Green Border “Zielona granica” (2023 film) Full Movie Download, MP4, Mkv & Cast

Green Border (Polish: Zielona granica) is a 2023 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film is written by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk and stars an ensemble cast that includes Jalal Altawil, Maja Ostaszewska, Behi Djanati Atai, Tomasz Włosok, Mohamad Al Rashi, Dalia Naous, Maciej Stuhr and Agata Kulesza. It dramatizes the plight of migrants caught in the Belarus–European Union border crisis.

The film competed for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize. It received positive reviews from critics but was condemned by Polish government officials and by some segments of the wider Polish nation. It was released in Poland on 22 September by Kino Świat.

Plot

“In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are caught in a geopolitical crisis triggered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian refugee family intertwine.”

Cast

Jalal Altawil as Bashir
Maja Ostaszewska as Julia
Tomasz Włosok as Jan
Behi Djanati Atai as Leila
Mohamad Al Rash
Dalia Naous as Amina
Piotr Stramowski
Jaśmina Polak as Zuku
Marta Stalmierska
Agata Kulesza
Maciej Stuhr
Magdalena Popławska
Joely Mbundu
Monika Frajczyk as Marta
Taim Ajjan as Nur
Talia Ajjan as Ghania

Production

Green Border is a co-production between Poland, France, the Czech Republic and Belgium. It was produced by Marcin Wierzchosławski (Metro Films), Fred Bernstein (Astute Films), and Agnieszka Holland. It was co-produced by Maria Blicharska, Damien McDonald (Blick Productions), Šárka Cimbalová (Marlene Film Production) and Diana Elbaum, David Ragonig (Beluga Tree). The film is supported by Eurimages, the Czech Film Fund, the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), Sofica La Banque Postale Image 17, the Centre du Cinema et de L’Audiovisuel de la Federation Wallonie Bruxelles, CANAL+ Poland, Czech Television and ZDF/ARTE. Holland made the decision to begin work on the film in September 2021; she and her two fellow screenwriters “documented [the border crisis] very deeply” when writing the screenplay, with this research including hundreds of hours of document analysis and of interviews with refugees, borderland residents, activists and experts, as well as testimony by anonymous Polish Border Guard officers. While Holland wanted to start filming as soon as the screenplay was finished, financial pressures meant that she had to wait a year to do so. It was decided that the film would be shot in black-and-white as it was thought that to do so would be “metaphorical, and somehow connected to the past, the Second World War, documentary-like”, in addition to allowing for better visual and artistic control considering the shooting and editing schedule. Principal photography was conducted between April and May 2023; it lasted for twenty-four days and involved three units (Holland’s unit being the primary one). Many film crew members took “low or no salaries”. Holland claimed that “[e]verything that happens in the film is documented; nothing is invented”, but added that she and the other filmmakers “did some construction” and that the film’s characters are “inspired by real people but composed”.

Release date

Green Border was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 5 September 2023. Following screenings at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival and 2023 New York Film Festival. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in ‘Icon’ section and was screened on 7 October 2023. The film will be screened at the Vatican as part of the 27th Tertio Millenio Film Festival in November 2023, being announced as the winner of the festival’s Special Fuoricampo Prize beforehand.

The film was theatrically released in Poland by Kino Świat on 22 September 2023. By government order, “studio cinemas” (Polish: Kina studyjne – these generally are independent cinemas that receive state support) that may wish to screen the film are required to show a video presenting the government perspective on the border crisis prior to the actual screening. In Otwock, a cinema (Kino Oaza) that was due to show the film later removed it from its schedule. Kino Oaza is run by Otwock’s city council, which claimed that the cinema is often forced to change its schedule or suspend screenings entirely due to having to share its premises with a playhouse; however, the city mayor, Jarosław Margielski, is a Law and Justice member and so at least one councillor suggested the possibility of politically motivated censorship. As Kino Oaza is the only cinema in Otwock, the cancellation of its screenings of Green Border means that residents would only be able to see the film if they travelled to another locality. Agnieszka Holland retorted that Law and Justice ended up losing local elections in Ostrołęka after that city’s council acted similarly to prevent screenings of Kler. In Kędzierzyn-Koźle, the Nicolaus Copernicus Second General Education Liceum (Polish: II Liceum Ogólnokształcącego im. Mikołaja Kopernika) was due to send its pupils to a screening of the film, but this was blocked by Law and Justice supporters whose children were enrolled with the liceum. The idea of a school trip to see the film was originally that of Marzanna Gądek-Radwanowska, a teacher at the liceum who also happened to be a Civic Platform candidate in the then-upcoming parliamentary election.

International sales are handled by Films Boutique. Distribution rights were purchased by Condor Distribution (France), September Film (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy), Leopardo Filmes (Portugal), MCF Megacom (the Balkans), and AQS (Czech Republic and Slovakia), as well as by Vercine (Spain), Panda Lichtspiele (Austria), Kino Pavasaris (the Baltics), Art Fest (Bulgaria), Magic Box (Slovakia), Fivia (Slovenia), Vertigo (Hungary), Bio Paradis (Iceland), Transformer Inc. (Japan), Piffl Medien (Germany), Lev Cinema (Israel), Trigon (Switzerland), Moving Turtle (Middle East and North Africa), Danaos Films (Greece), Arthouse Traffic (Ukraine), Kino Lorber (United States) and Modern Films (United Kingdom).