The Green Border, Agnieszka Holland’s latest direction has, on the eve of Cannes, just completed principal photography in Poland, as Films Boutique take the project on for world sales after handling the sales on Holland’s previous outing Charlatan.The film is a co-production between Poland, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Producers are Marcin Wierzchosławski (Metro Films), Fred Bernstein (Astute Films) and Agnieszka Holland, co-producers are Maria Blicharska, Damien McDonald (Blick Productions), ŠárkaCimbalová (Marlene Film Production) and Diana Elbaum, David Ragonig(Beluga Tree), while the executive producersare chair of the European Film Academy Mike Downey, and Field Entertainment’s Jeff Field.
The story of the film follows the fate of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU. The screenplay is by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, and whilst a fiction, the script of the film is based on real events that are happening in the here and now. That is why the preparations for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.
“The action takes place about a year ago, when the humanitarian crisis on the border began,” says Holland, “The Green Border is a story about the aftermath of this great change. It is not a film about refugees. Nor is it a film about Polish activists rescuing refugees or about border guards. Although these three perspectives are intertwined in the film. The film is a story about how each of us can unexpectedly find ourselves in a borderline situation and having to make choices between Good and Evil. The Green Border helps us understand that the discussion of moral choices is not the domain of academia, but is happening here and now, in contemporary Poland.
Poland's eastern border runs through thickets and marshes of one of the last primeval forests in Europe. It separates authoritarian Belarus from the European Union. Until recently, there were no barbed wire, no walls, but thousands of square kilometers of dense and impassable forest. Until now this place was a tourist attraction. Suddenly, people speaking a wide variety of languages and looking different from the locals began to appear in the forest. Hundreds, thousands, of such people. Everything changed overnight.”
“We are thrilled to continue our collaboration with Agnieszka Holland following CHARLATAN says Jean Christophe Simon, CEO of Films Boutique, “With THE GREEN BORDER, Agnieszka is again telling us an amazing story questioning politics, European history and showing the complexity of human beings and how our lives can be at stake at any time. The film is also a fascinating follow up to her cult film EUROPA EUROPA more than 30 years after, showing that history can repeat itself and that the dream of Europe is a permanent fight”.
The green border, will be the new film by Agnieszka Holland (three-time Oscar nominee and the director of the acclaimed pictures In Darkness, Golden Globe winning Europa, Europa, Spoor, Mr JonesandCharlatan). Holland’s many credits include also include a range of quality TV hits such as House of Cards and Treme.
The film is currently editing in Prague.
The film is supported by Eurimages, as well as the Czech Film Fund, the CNC – Centre National du Cinema et L’Image Animée - Cinema du Monde, Sofica La Banque Postale Image 17as well as Belgium’s Centre du Cinema et de L’Audiovisuel de la Federation WallonieBruxellesas well as CANAL+Poland, Czech Television andZDF/ARTE.
The film is distributed in Poland by Kino Świat.
The multinational cast includes Jalal Altawil (“Neighbours”), Maja Ostaszewska (“Body”), Tomasz Włosok (“How I Became a Gangster”), Behi Djanati Atai (“Welcome”), Mohamed Al Rashi (“Al Hadira: The Hangar”), Dalia Naous ("Escape from Raqqa"), Piotr Stramowski (“Pitbull: New Orders”), Jaśmina Polak (“The Wedding”), Marta Stalmierska ( “The Breach”), Agata Kulesza (“Ida”), Maciej Stuhr (“The Teacher”), Magdalena Popławska (“Panic Attack”).
For Further information please contact: Films Boutique
