Bashir decided to flee Syria with his family after being tortured by the so-called Islamic State. Together with young border guard Jan, activist Julia and Afghan teacher Leila, they find themselves at the Polish border in the middle of one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time.
Agnieszka Holland’s new film, inspired by real events, shows that the division of people into “us” and “the others”, or of “lower” and “higher” categories, is a reality even in today’s Europe. Bashir’s family finds itself in a loop of endless shuttling between guards on the Polish and Belarusian sides of the border. The only people who offer help and simple kindness are the members of a local activist group. The film bears raw testimony to the fact that inhumanity and cruelty are not a thing of the past.