Belarus, somewhere.
A car came to a halt deep in the forest.
Standing in the way were several border guards armed with guns.
Seeing that the time was ripe, the driver signaled to the passengers who had already paid the fare to pay an additional $300 to get out of the car.
The woman sitting in the back seat didn't want to make a fuss, so she took out 300 euros from her purse and handed it to the driver.
A few gunshots disrupted the rhythm....
Seven passengers were thrown out of the car and climbed over sharp barbed wire.
The guard let out a beastly roar:Fuck Run!
The mother holds the baby in swaddling clothes, the old man holds the hand of the granddaughter, and the middle-aged woman drags the heavy suitcase.
Desperately running towards the forests of Poland....
The above clip is from the one that just went online"Green Frontier"., focusing on the story of refugees on the border between Belarus and Poland, directed by Polish female director Agnieszka Horan, with a current Douban score of 75。
The 75-year-old has a proven track record, having been nominated for three Oscars and a regular at major European film festivals.
This is one of the most underrated unpopular masterpieces in recent times.
It is created based on a real background -
In 2021, a refugee crisis erupted on the Belarusian-Polish border.
A large number of refugees from the Middle East want to cross the border to Poland, a member of the European Union.
Poland has deployed tens of thousands of troops in the border areas, erected 180 kilometers of barbed wire, and designated "exclusion zones" to prevent the influx of refugees and increase the burden on society.
Refugees are caught in a dilemma and trapped in the forests of the border region.
When the harsh winter came, they had no thick clothes to protect them from the cold, and at the same time, there was a shortage of food, and their living conditions were dire...
Source: Xinhua News Agency.
When the film was screened at the Venice Film Festival, it was well received by critics and eventually won a "Special Jury Prize".
Agnieszka Horan.
In Poland, the film was boycotted before it was released.
State dignitaries have repeatedly publicly criticized it for damaging the country's image, stirring up public sentiment, and smearing border guards, calling it "a stupid, false, irresponsible, and shameful film."
Despite the controversy of "Green Border", and despite the fact that it is not an artistically accomplished **, I would say that it is the most demanded film in the world today....
Four perspectives, dividing the whole film into four sections.
They are——A Syrian family on the run.
Guards stationed at the border.
Civil society organizations that provide assistance to refugees.
Individuals who join civil society organizations.
Although the film is called "Green Border", it uses black and white tones, and the narrative technique of almost documentary directly shows the cruelty and absurdity of reality.
It is also said thatIn this form of creation, the director hints at the regression of human civilization....
The story begins with a Syrian family.
They live in a land where fighting has left people displaced and schools and hospitals in ruins.
In order to survive, for the sake of the future of the next generation, they plan to fly to Belarus, then cross the border to Poland, and finally to Sweden to join their loved ones.
With all their might, they ran into the labyrinthine forest.
In the winter, they snuggled up to each other and slept on the ground in the open air....
There is no water to drink, so you can only collect rainwater from the pine needles to moisten your lips...
In the dark, if you're not careful, you'll get stuck in the swamp...
In their anxiety and fright, they spent two nightmarish nights.
Soon, they were spotted by the border guards who were patrolling.
The guards not only gave the men cigarettes and teased the children, but also soothed their emotions, and they were full of praise for these friendly behaviors: these people are so nice!
The guards called a truck and said they would send them to Germany and then to Sweden.
They didn't know that the guards were doing all this just to trick them into the car.
The carriage was packed with refugees from Africa and the Middle East.
The direction in which the truck travels is the border of Belarus....
Unable to be detected by the soldiers of neighboring countries, the Polish guards could only take advantage of the cover of night to quickly drive the refugees back to the territory of Belarus.
The police dog was biting the old man's calf...
The woman's phone was cut by pliers....
Someone dropped a thermos, and the guards first smashed the liner on the trunk of the tree and threw it at the refugees.
The thirsty man unscrewed the cap of the bottle and poured it into his mouth, and the broken glass slashed the mouth and esophagus, causing the man to kneel on the ground and gulp**.
This kind of brutal law enforcement that tramples on human rights is an ordinary daily routine on the borderSometimes "humanitarianism" is just a pale concept....
When they returned to the forests of Belarus, snowflakes fell in the sky.
What they saw were improvised tents that could not withstand the wind, corpses covered by white cloths, and shams...
The woman plucked up the courage and begged the Belarusian soldiers for water.
The soldier took a cigarette in one hand and mineral water in the other, and said contemptuously and arrogantly: 50 euros.
After taking the woman's money, the soldier was still not satisfied, and snatched the wallet with his hand.
The woman wanted her wallet back, but the soldier reached out and snatched back the mineral water, unscrewed the cap of the bottle defiantly, and poured out the water from the bottle.
A few minutes later, they were again driven over the barbed wire, into the forests of Poland, and thus ran back and forth on the border between Belarus and Poland....
The second section of the film is the perspective of a Polish border guard.
The "Moment of Humanity" begins here and slowly unfolds.
At the group meeting, a commander who was sent to "boost morale" spoke passionately about the nature of the refugees to the front-line border guards
They are pedophiles, zoophiles, child laborers, child abusers, and their hands are covered with the sin of child trafficking.
The chief's rhetorical question is a typical PUA-style sophistry:You also have children of your own, and what father would want his children to follow this path?
In the eyes of the chief, these desperate people can't even be called "people", they are just political bullets....
There is no doubt that after a long period of indulgence in highly inflammatory rhetoric, the border guards have gradually been led into violent machines.
If necessary, the guard can accept the psychiatrist's **, and the relevant expenses will be paid by **.
The principle of duty is simple:No dead people can be seen under the noses of the guards, and no corpses can appear in the border area.
There is a plot in the film.
While on patrol, the guards found a body near the barbed wire.
The face of the deceased was hideous.
The cause of death is unknown. Hunger, or sickness, or injury in a violent drive...
How did they dispose of the bodies of the refugees?
Turn off the searchlight and quickly throw the body to the other end of the barbed wire.
When the child is beaten indiscriminately, the pregnant woman is bleeding profusely in a panic...
When a volunteer breaks into a restricted area with a first responder, he is humiliated, intimidated, retaliated against...
When the woman who fell into the swamp was taken to the hospital, she was forcibly dragged from her hospital bed the next day, and her whereabouts are unknown...
The only moral voice that resounded across the border was that sentence:We are saving them(Refugees).
Of course, civil society organizations have always been active in the border areas.
They provide refugees with free water, food, medicine, clothes, power banks and other materials, and assist refugees in signing Polish asylum documents.
But they don't give refugees directions, they don't take them off borders, they can't enter officially restricted areas.
Because they are a thorn in the side of the border guards, cross-border behavior invites trouble, and if the organization is devastated, the refugees will no longer be helped....
So they have been fighting guerrilla warfare in the extreme area.
The film focuses on Julia's story.
She lives in the border area, works as a psychiatrist, and her husband has lost his life to the coronavirus, and she is dependent on two dogs.
After witnessing the brutal treatment by the authorities, she decided to join a civil society organization and become a volunteer to help refugees.
She vacated her house as a "base", and her companions rescued a number of fugitive teenagers by diverting the tiger from the mountain, and asked her patients to help them settle properly.
I believe that Julia is just a microcosm.
There must be countless more Julia who are making a modest contribution to solving the humanitarian crisis...
The film also focuses on a border guard.
He's about to be promoted to a new dad.
But what he saw and heard while on duty made his heart extremely tugging.
Many of the refugees who were beaten and expelled also had children.
All he saw was hurt, only a ruined childhood.
When he hears the exact opposite of reality on the radio, he roars...
When his wife recognizes him in a crowd of violent law enforcement, he is ashamed....
There is no such thing as absolute good and absolute evil in human nature, and the good thoughts in the heart will definitely be stimulated and polished at some moment.
So, when he found a pair of frightened and helpless eyes in the stopped truck, he did not reveal it, but put the box back in its place, closed the door, and motioned for the driver to pass...
This action is so powerful and so bright.
Since the start of the refugee crisis in 2014, some 30,000 people have been killed while crossing borders across Europe.
Their lives, in the midst of displacement, are forever fixed on land, in the sea, in the depths of the forest...
Refugees are a complex and intractable issue.
Of course, there are social problems caused by the reception of refugees.
But the only way to deal with this is violent eviction that tramples on human rights, and there is only prejudice based on skin color, race, and geographical distribution
Writing this, I am reminded of the sharing of the director of "Green Border".
She said she finished the film as quickly as possible.
Because, can't wait any longer.
It should be seen by the terminally ill world as soon as possible.
This is the maximum amount of voice she can make as a creator.
And letting this movie be seen by you is the only thing the crow can do.
But, at this moment.
The plot in the movie is still repeated in reality....