In 2021, Bashir (Altawil) and his family flee Syria for Belarus, hoping to cross into neighboring Poland on their way to Sweden, and freedom. They become pawns in a vicious cycle, as Belarus’s dictator knows Poland will reject them, bringing chaos and bad publicity to their E.U. neighbor. Living outdoors and treated like animals by guards on both sides, they are pushed back and forth over the border, along with Leila (Atai), an Afghan seeking asylum in Poland. Julia (Ostaszewska) is a psychologist on the Polish side who joins a group of activists to help the victims, and Jan (Wlosok) is a border guard quietly outraged by what he sees.

A gifted filmmaker in familiar terrain exploring displacement and the steep human cost of war, Holland fashions a near-masterpiece revisiting, with the immediacy of a documentary, a recent humanitarian outrage some may have missed or forgotten about. This searing film was impactful enough to earn a public condemnation from the Polish government. The beautifully realized “Green Border” is often a gut-wrenching watch, but Holland and her team make it impossible to turn away.