Holland manages at the same time to pay tribute to the recent efforts of Polish population, border guards included, aimed at helping the Ukrainians since February 2022, as well as to denounce Poland’s and EU’s double standards for refugees

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 21, 2025

Similarly devoid of nuance, its moral reckoning accentuated by brilliant black-and-white cinematography, Green Border is a visceral ordeal and virtuoso tumult.

| Jan 15, 2025

You can't blame Holland for going for the jugular either as far as making that tragedy as horrific as possible since reality spares no one. At two-and-a-half hours, the script never lulls.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 10, 2025

A heart-wrenching on-the-grounds picture of what refugees experience trying to cross from Belarus to Poland and the European Union.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 9, 2025

Holland reveals just how deep this web of fascism goes, how it takes root, how it spreads, and how it plays out.

| Nov 22, 2024

It flows quite effectively between the different stories without any of them losing strength, especially the refugee plot, which is the most pertinent and painful. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 11, 2024

Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border is an urgent, fiercely political film about the ongoing migrant crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border... [the] film is inherently humanist and weaves a portrait of the complexities of the problem for everyone involved.

| Oct 5, 2024

Instead of Green Border remaining a hard-edged film in which the depredations of an unfair, destructive system are exposed, it becomes something that makes viewers feel a little bit better about the agony she brought to life in the first half...

| Sep 16, 2024

Green Border is not an easy watch, but it is an indescribably important one, and one of Holland’s most humane and compassionate works yet.

| Aug 26, 2024

The refugees all think they’re on the road to a new life in a peaceful country, but quickly learn that they have been tricked into playing a game few of them will be able to win

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 26, 2024

Brutal, field-level depictions of trauma orchestrated by oppressive political structures seeking to manipulate the hearts and minds of some, while dehumanizing others renders Green Border an angry, visceral masterpiece.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2024

An empathetic story that studies the humanitarian crisis in the Poland-Belarus border from different angles, questioning the biased policies of European nations. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 13, 2024

In the migrant drama, the borders are secured with callous disregard for human life, drawing parallels to the crisis today. At 75, Agnieszka Holland continues to be one of the most important filmmakers of our time.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 3, 2024

It is a bleak and brutal experience... But it is also an effective one, with fleshed-out characters and stories that intersect well. And Holland tries to find and present compassion alongside her anger at how refugees are treated.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 25, 2024

If you can tough it out, this is a rewarding experience.

| Jul 25, 2024

[Director Agnieszka Holland's] obvious point: despite the promises of a united Europe, respect for human rights today has sunk to a level not seen since the darkest days of fascism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 24, 2024

The film is all the more haunting for...Tomek Naumiuk’s digital b&w documentary style shooting stylized with the gothic horror of tree branches reaching toward the sky like twisted fingers and swamps waiting to swallow the defenseless.

| Original Score: A | Jul 23, 2024

A gut-wrenching film, artfully told.

| Jul 18, 2024

The haunted faces of actors such as Jalal Altawil are hard to forget. An extended coda, in which Ukrainian refugees are warmly welcomed by the same Polish guards who tormented Syrian refugees, packs a serious punch.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 13, 2024

It doesn't pull any punches on all sides.

| Jul 13, 2024