This Polish feature film opens with a Syrian refugee family flying from Turkey into Belarus where a taxi arranged by a family member living in Sweden will transport them to the Polish border where they will “illegally” cross into Poland the assumption being the trip from Poland to Sweden can be made without any difficulty as after all they are in the EU the land of refugee and migrant perceived milk and honey. The Syrian family muses flying into Belarus then “sneaking into” to Poland, an EU member, is less trying and much safer than a boat crossing. The film makes it quite clear this is not the case.
The Syrian family accompanied by an Afghan refugee take the prearranged taxi from the airport to an unofficial Belarus-Polish border crossing being stopped in a heavily forested area by Belarus military authorities that extort a further 300 Euros to permit them to crawl under the barbed wire and to the EU! After struggling through the Polish forest for two days the Polish border security forces roundup the Syrian family and toss them into a truck with other migrants and refugees and shove them back through the barbed wire to Belarus where they are extorted, robbed and beaten. The Syrian family escapes back into Poland and promptly herded by Polish border security forces again in ping pong fashion into Belarus. One refugee tells the Syrian family this back and forth has happened to him 5 times. Migrants and refugees are bled dry by the Belarusians and despised by both the Poles and Belarusians.
The Syrian grandfather is severely beaten by the Belarusian security forces and separated from the family and their young son escapes into the Polish forest with the Afghani woman and drowns in a bog.
The Belarusians are portrayed as vicious louts. The Poles are less vicious but the Polish border guards are trained to treat these “darky” migrants and refugees as live bullets from Putin and dictator President Lukashenko of Belarus a strong Russian ally. We follow a border guard who gradually faces disillusionment, if not PTSD, after participating in so many terrorizing and brutal roundups and expulsions.
Poles are unsympathetic to the refugees and migrants flowing through the Belarusian border but there are Polish activists providing legal advice, food, water, medical care, phones, power banks and dry clothes but do not act as guides or offer transportation facing arrest for aiding illegal migrants. Even where the initial paperwork for Polish asylum is prepared officially requiring transport to a migrant camp this rule is ignored and the border police may simply “export” migrants and refugees back to Belarus.
Viewers may expect a steady diet of desperation, terror, fear, violence and corruption directed toward migrants and refugees entering Poland through Belarus and those that help them face harassment and or arrest.
Strange watching the Epilogue where during the first two weeks from the start of the Russian 26February2022 invasion of Ukraine close to two million Ukrainian refugees were admitted into Poland in a polite and good-mannered fashion unlike the treatment of refugees and migrants entering Poland through the Belarusian border. Was this based on religion, race, geographical proximity and politics?
The black and white cinematography lends a realistic and highly depressing tinge to the film. This film simply could not have been shot in colour.
Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
Screens 13September2025 at the Biannual Kino Polska Film Festival in New York.
RKS 2025 Film Rating 89/100.
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