Green Border – 8.5

A sober and sobering account of a Syrian refugee family’s attempt to reach Sweden via Belarus and Poland, two countries that kicked them around, and worse, like political footballs. Agnieszka Holland crafts her film, shot in black-and-white after an opening view of, presumably, the green border, in chapters told from the perspectives of 1. the family, 2. humanitarian activists, 3. one member of the border patrol, and 4. an attractive psychologist who responds, and is transformed, by 1, 2 and 3. Every character, and there are many, is compelling. The plight of the refugees is hard to watch but harder to turn away from. While the film’s message is a plea for humanity, you can’t but feel, as with last year’s Io Capitano, that you don’t want to be a refugee.