Humming and whistling after the screening of “The Green Border”. Maja Ostaszewska couldn’t stand it either [TYLKO U NAS]

Bogusław Chrabota, leading the meeting at Warsaw’s Kinoteka, which took place on September 25, said that he was interested in “the attitude of the Border Guard in 2021, on the occasion of this storm on the Polish border and later these last scenes with Mrs. [Agnieszki Holland – red.] film, this last scene showing people’s sacrifice in 2022, after February 24.” Then he asked a question:

Is this the logic of history, of our times, that this had to happen so that Poland could experience some metamorphosis and be as it was in 2022?

Maja Ostaszewska: People are still dying there and fighting for health and survival. Nothing has changed

While he was still speaking, the growing tension in Maja Ostaszewska was visible, but Agnieszka Holland was the first to speak. The exchange of words led to Chrabota booing, and then Ostaszewska, an actress playing in “The Green Border” and also a person involved in helping on the Polish-Belarusian border, reached for the microphone:

First of all, sir, people are still dying there and struggling for health and survival. Nothing has changed, so there hasn’t been any great transformation.

Later, she talked about what was happening at the border and about pushbacks, which are violations of human rights and violations of the Penal Code. – There was no great awakening… – she continued, to which Chrabota said: “Or maybe a small one…”. Then there were even whistles. Watch Ostaszewska’s entire statement, in which she also talks about border guards’ help to immigrants and the dilemmas of people like the actors portray in “The Green Border”.

Ostaszewska concluded:

There was no great awakening. What’s more, we hear that our government is no longer profitable for Polish-Ukrainian friendship and disastrous signals are starting to appear, so it’s not like we all suddenly woke up. What’s great is how society responded to the hate towards our film – maybe not the whole society, but our viewers. Well, this turnout is the answer.

On the opening weekend, “The Green Border” was seen in cinemas by over 137,000 people. viewers. This is the best opening of a Polish film this year.

Agnieszka Holland: Refugees on the Belarusian border are not “storming”

Later in the meeting, Holland did not leave unanswered the word used by the journalist. – You used the term “storm”. Refugees on the Belarusian border do not “storm”. There was one such episode organized by Lukashenko when a large group of men were rushed to the border and de facto forced to attack the border using branches and stones. On the other hand, they were treated adequately and this “assault” lasted one day, was repelled, and nothing like that ever happened again. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen again, because there are all forces there that use such methods, cynically and ruthlessly, which benefit them politically, she said.

– These pictures from this “storm” have been broadcast over and over since then, almost two years, by the party television and TVP-iS – adds the director – Nothing else happened there. These are desperate people who really don’t care who rules where in these countries: whether it’s some Lukashenko, whether it’s some Kaczyński, whether it’s some Orban, whether it’s some Merkel… They don’t care, oh as long as humanity is shown towards them, they will be treated as people, not as bullets, as political tools, they will not be treated as numbers, as is the case in our centers closed to foreigners, where these people often spend their time without committing any crime – because crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor, not a crime – they spend months and years there, and in some places they are treated worse than in Guantanamo, Holland said. – We are all put in a very difficult situation and that is what we were interested in in our film: how someone faces this choice, this pressure, this tragedy and what does it mean for all of us as a community – added Holland.