As part of Refugee Week 2024, Modern Films is happy to announce the screening of Green Border, from three-times Oscar-nominated Polish film director Agnieszka Holland, on Saturday 22 June 2024, at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 6pm. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with academics from Aberystwyth University’s International Politics Department regarding the real life situation of the ‘Green Border’.

The film will also be screened on 21^st June at 7.45pm, and 23^rd June at 5pm.

In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped in a geopolitical crisis cynically engineered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU.

Pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian family, intertwine. Through weaving together multiple perspectives, the film, shot starkly in black and white, explores the lives of these varied individuals, shedding light on the realities and challenges asylum seekers face.

Following its World Premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, GREEN BORDER, which uses multiple perspectives to look at the refugee crisis in Europe, opens our eyes, speaks to the heart, and challenges us to reflect on the moral choices that fall to ordinary people every day.

“Agnieszka Holland’s devastating refugee epic reverberates with deep empathy and quiet fury”★★★★★ Time Out

“A vital bearing of cinematic witness to what is happening in Europe right now” ★★★★ The Guardian

“Insists that we not only look but see with clarity what is going on…essential, urgent and damning”- Eye for Film