It’s not just pigs that sit in the cinema.

There are also auditors and people who do not trust them. Distrust of the messages of politicians and the media, because in Poland in 2023 AD, it will be difficult to look for objective politicians and journalists who are not involved in political battles. Of course, I do not forbid anyone to believe uncritically in the message of Gazeta Wyborcza or Gazeta Polska, or in the words of the leader of this or that party, including in relation to the film. However, I prefer, rather than blindly believing a supporter of the film who has not seen it or an opponent who has not seen it either, to form my own opinion about the films, including Agnieszka Holland’s The Green Border, which is barely mentioned. No one saw it until yesterday, and they expressed that the Prime Minister, the President, the leader of the most important opposition party, dozens of media professionals, and thousands of bloggers knew about it, and the Council of Ministers took a special decision regarding it. I went to see this film because I did not want to take the word of Prime Minister Morawiecki, who – as I discovered – had not even seen the trailer for the film (as evidenced by his invention of a scene in which the people of Podlasie show refugees water and glass), and yet he still went so far in passing judgment. .

How do I rate “Green Borders” by Agnieszka Holland? It is a weak, colorless film. Not bad or gross, just weak. Not only did the film not move or move me, it simply did not elicit any positive or negative emotions for sure. The characters in the film are one-dimensional – the Polish and Belarusian soldiers and Polish policemen are primitive people, the volunteers of the Granica group are ideological and noble, the refugees are severely deprived of fate, because there are no economic migrants among them, who dominate real life, and they are all victims of war, ISIS persecution or a bomb that destroyed their home. .

It is difficult to be moved by the sight of a refugee’s wounded feet being bandaged if the refugee has been in the forest for several hours and finds himself there immediately after the departure of the Turkish Airlines plane. If the film showed that he had previously been accommodated in a hotel, then taken by Belarusian services to the Polish border, then forced to cross it and travel several kilometers in difficult conditions, the effect would be stronger because the viewer would associate the film with knowledge of this subject taken from reliable accounts, but the Belarusian soldiers In the film they are cunning and brutal bribes, not an element of the Belarusian and Russian regime as part of Operation “Lockdown”.

The pushing scenes do not arouse emotions because the barbed wire barrier opens like a gate as long as the Polish border guard wants it open, and the famous scene of a pregnant woman being thrown over the wire occurs even though other refugees have been exposed to it. Previously passed under the fence without any problems.

Ms. Holland declares in interviews that the film is based on facts. Of course, it is a fact that refugees are pressing towards the Polish border from the Belarusian side, but these are crowds that were inspired and forced by the Belarusian services, and in the film we see several small scattered groups, one of which and they encounter the same Polish border guards several times on their way.

A film has been created around a very important, very hot and current topic. A film that could have been a showcase for Polish cinematography and a country determined to defend not just Poland, but the rest of Europe against the influx of illegal immigration. Unfortunately, the film was made for less than noble reasons. The creators do not hide the fact that they want to show the Polish state, its officials and the residents of Podlasie as unprofessional, immoral and only evil, and that the good ones are vehemently opposed to the Polish state under PiS rule. “I always voted for the platform, and when necessary I would stand with a candle in front of the court,” says one of the film’s characters, who was asked to lend her car to help transport refugees from the jungle. But he refuses to help because he is afraid of losing his job…

If Agnieszka Holland had focused on the facts, she might have found inspiration for more convincing, more poignant and memorable scenes, but the director wasted this compelling theme because she tried to appeal to authorities she did not like. The film was made tendentiously and achieved undeserved international success because it met the need to show refugees fighting for their lives, even though most of them are economic migrants.

It is unfortunate that the Polish state does not have a solution for this type of situation. It does not carry out promotional campaigns, does not care about Poland’s prestige and image on an ongoing basis, and only reacts ad hoc to emerging attacks. The political formation that has been in power in Poland for the eighth year does not use the available mass culture tool, including cinema and television films, and has given scope to people unfriendly or even hostile to Poland. It is true that films showing important and beautiful parts of Polish history are produced with the financial participation of the state (Documentary and Fiction Studio, Polish Television, Polish Film Institute, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Polish National Foundation, local governments) but they are either exaggerated and simply boring, e.g. Bilecki Report”, or inconsistent with historical truth, such as “Stones for the Wall”, or dishonest and biased, such as the film discussed, which was not financed by state institutions. Polish state, but by other states.

Finally, a word about the slogan “Only pigs sit in cinemas.” In 1942, the Home Army Information Bulletin published an article stating that ticket money left by viewers in cinemas during the German occupation of Poland was used to arm the German army and that it was therefore shameful to go to the cinema. If we were to apply this principle now, it would mean that the money generated from film distribution goes to purposes that have nothing to do with the interests of Poland and Poles, and as a result, everyone who goes to the cinema, not only to watch Agnieszka Holland’s latest film, can be called “pigs.” . Is this what the Polish soldiers guarding the Polish border, who reminded us of this slogan, and President Duda, who repeats it after them, mean?

The text was first published on gruszka.com.