Colors of the Borders: Discourses of Migration and Border Crossings in American and Polish Cinema

This paper offers a comparative analysis of Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border (2023)—a poignant depiction of migrants’ experiences on the Polish-Belarusian frontier—and two Hollywood films that address migration across the U.S.–Mexico border: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) and the experimental short Flesh and Sand (Carne y Arena). The analysis shows that, when read alongside these American texts, Holland’s film employs similar tropes and visual conventions to explore borders, migration, and hospitality, yet it departs from Hollywood models by foregrounding the moral dilemmas of border activism and presenting a naturalistic portrayal of the trauma of irregular border crossings. Although Green Border was not directly influenced by cinematic representations of the U.S.–Mexico border crisis, it nonetheless draws on discursive strategies that contribute to a broader interpretive framework for understanding global border crises. Migration films increasingly reflect the globalized nature of mobility, illustrating how intensifying movement disrupts and reconfigures local institutions and communities.