(Warsaw) The Prime Minister and the head of the ruling party in Poland on Wednesday violently criticized the film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland Green Borderwhich received the jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The film, whose Polish premiere is scheduled for September 22, focuses on the condition of migrants, originating from Asia and the Middle East, seeking to enter Poland illegally from Belarus and often being repelled by Polish border guards, assisted by the army.
The leader of the nationalist Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski denounced a “shameful and disgusting pamphlet which participates in what could be defined as the industry of contempt for Poland”, during a meeting of his party in Wroclaw, reported the PAP agency.
The aim of this film is “to insult the Polish uniform, to insult the Poles, to present the honest defense of the Polish border, the EU border, as a crime,” Kaczynski added.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki judged for his part that this film “de facto announces the dismantling of the wall on the border of Belarus”, an imposing steel fence erected by the current government to curb illegal immigration.
The Ministers of Defense, Interior and Justice, meeting Wednesday within the National Security and Defense Committee, for their part adopted a resolution “defending the reputation of soldiers of the armed forces and other services that ensure border security on a daily basis.
This resolution “takes on its full importance in the context of the presentation of Agnieszka Holland’s film. Film that attacks the honor and reputation of Poland, soldiers of the Polish army, border guards and Polish police officers,” Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said at a press conference.
The migration issue is one of the main themes of the electoral campaign ahead of the Polish legislative elections on October 15, with the ruling party highlighting its anti-immigration policy, while the opposition accuses it of in fact favoring entry of numerous migrants by issuing them thousands of visas.