By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Kasia Smutniak
Original language title: Mur
Year: 2024
Running time: 107
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28688064/reference/
Diane says: “Katia Smutniak, an award-winning Polish-Italian actor, said at the TIFF Q&A that her documentary was ‘not made out of a desire to make a movie.’ Compelled by the situation of migrants trying to enter Poland through the country’s banned ‘red zone,’ she wondered how she could help. And the answer came: ‘I have a great tool—audiences like you.’
“WALLS is not as much a work of art as a call to action. Smutniak gives us portraits of the activists who work clandestinely on the border between Poland and Belarus. In the immense and dangerous Białowieza Forest, migrants can text the aid organization, which receives their coordinates, then volunteers search for them. We see the great lengths to which these migrants from the Middle East and Africa will go, as well as those who try to rescue them. With admirable courage, the director goes into the forest herself, takes part in the searches, and negotiates encounters with the police. (She even pilots a glider to get an overview of the area.)
“Separate sections of the film show the history of Poles turning a blind eye to the Nazi genocide, and, ironically, Poland’s recent warm welcome for Ukrainian refugees. We see the border police playing games with Ukrainian children, while their fellow officers at the Belarus border go after non-European refugees with drones and 4-wheelers.
“The film ends with shots of Smutniak’s grandmother’s house, unused, empty and decaying. We learn that 15 EU countries have built walls at their borders. 3 cats.
“WALLS was probably overshadowed by Agniezka Holland’s GREEN BORDERS, which played later at TIFF and deals with the same subject (and which I did not see).”