After the hunt for Agnieszka Holland’s latest film that has been going on for several weeks, it will be difficult to find a person who has not heard anything about this production. The director received the Special Jury Prize for this film at the Venice Film Festival, and politicians from the ruling camp have often made scandalous statements about the production.
There was also a lot of buzz around the film’s pre-premiere screenings. Nationalists protested in front of the Pod Baranami Cinema in Krakow and the PKiN Kinoteka in Warsaw, where they shouted hateful slogans. In this way, they wanted to disgrace the film to the viewers.
We have the answer regarding ticket sales. People prefer to be “pigs” who go to the cinema
We decided to check whether massive attacks on “The Green Border” will have a real impact on cinema attendance. Although the film is only available in repertoire today, we have written to representatives of several cinemas to share with us information about the current ticket sales for Agnieszka Holland’s latest film. It seems that many people will want to spend the upcoming weekend at the cinema. This is the response from representatives of the largest cinema chain in Poland, Helios:
We have very encouraging results of pre-sale tickets for the film ‘The Green Border’ in our cinema network. This is one of the best pre-sale results for Polish films this year. According to preliminary estimates, we can expect the opening result to be approximately 100,000 viewers in the country – informed the press office of the Helios cinema chain.
We also managed to contact the New Horizons Cinema in Wrocław, which is famous all over the world due to the New Horizons International Film Festival organized there. “It is a bit difficult to compare this title with other Polish productions from other genres, but in our opinion, the interest in this film is actually greater than in the case of recent premiere titles,” Magdalena Maleczek from New Horizons Cinema told us. “At the moment, many viewers have already bought tickets,” she added.
We received a similar answer from Sara Niesporek-Broniszewska, manager of the Atlantic Cinema in Warsaw. “The viewers’ great interest is noticeable. I am glad that they want to watch this film, because only then will they be able to consciously participate in the discussion about it. How can you evaluate and comment on something you haven’t seen?” – we read.
Warsaw is a city that hosts and gives home to many foreigners. We want everyone to have a chance to see this title, which is why we present the film in its original language version with English subtitles at individual screenings, said the manager of the Atlantic Cinema in Warsaw.
What is “The Green Border” about?
The film shows the problem of the refugee crisis from the point of view of three social groups – Polish activists, border guards and refugees. The main character of the production is psychologist Julia (Maja Ostaszewska), who decides to move to Podlasie. Once there, she discovers the brutal reality of the Polish-Belarusian border. Terrified by this situation, she decides to get involved in helping refugees and joins a group of activists that helps newcomers camping in the forests in the zone covered by a state of emergency.
The story presented in the film is fictional, but it is based on real events that have been happening on the Polish-Belarusian border for two years. The film’s script is a joint work of Agnieszka Holland, director Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and writer Maciej Pisuk, and work on it was preceded by hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, border residents, activists and experts. In the film, apart from Ostaszewska, we will also see Tomasz Włosok, Maciej Stuhr, Agata Kulesza and Piotr Stramowski.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
