The Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior has sued President Andrzej Duda over a statement he made on TVP Info’s “Gość Wiadomości” program on Sept. 20, 2023, about Agnieszka Holland’s film “Green Border.”
Małgorzata Paprocka, the head of his office, confirmed that the president will stand trial in October 2025, reports Money.pl.
“I am sorry that such a film is being made, which – as I have heard, because I have not seen the film – decisively denigrates Polish officers. I have even read an opinion that shows them as almost sadists. These are people who are doing their duties, who are guarding the border of the Republic of Poland and the safety of Poles, but they are also guarding the border of the EU and the Schengen area, and therefore fulfilling our international obligations,” Andrzej Duda said in this program.
“They are guarding it against hybrid action, which is carried out by the authorities of a foreign country, hostile towards Poland and acting most certainly in agreement with the Kremlin,” he added.
“The fact that Ms. Holland shows Polish officers performing tasks for the Polish society, for the safety of all of us, shows them in this way, I am not surprised that the Border Guard officers who saw this film used this slogan, ‘Only pigs sit in the cinema,’ known to us from the Nazi occupation, when Nazi propaganda films were shown in our cinemas, added the president.”
The Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior is now suing the president, with the first hearing scheduled for Oct. 24, 2025, at 10 a.m. before the District Court in Warsaw.
The head of the Presidential Chancellery confirmed this date on Sunday and announced that the president will be represented at the hearing by an authorized attorney.
“Green Border” premiered on Sept. 5, 2023, during the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Special Jury Prize.
During the recent 49th Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia, Agnieszka Holland’s film received the Golden Lion.
