Would you open your door to a stranger who doesn’t speak your language, and who is soaked to the bone and hungry? Would you provide shelter, knowing that you and your family could face the consequences? And who is this man knocking on the door, believing he will get help, rather than come to harm? This is the important set-up that opens the Polish film The Guest. Directed by Zuzanna Solakiewicz and Zvika Gregory Portnoy, and co-directed by Michał Bielawski, it focuses on one human story and makes the most of it. The film premiered at IDFA, where it earned Portnoy the Best Cinematography Award, and was screened at Visions du Réel and other festivals, before finally having its Polish premiere at Millennium Docs Against Gravity (MDAG).

The crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border has been going on for four years. Refugees invited to Belarus by the country’s dictator, Lukashenko, are promised safe passage to Poland and thus to the European Union. The Polish border guards push the migrants back to Belarus, where they are forced to try to get into Poland. The crisis has already been depicted by Agnieszka Holland in Green Border [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] and in documentary films, such as Forest [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Lidia Duda
scheda film] by Lidia Duda. The situation of the refugees has got worse since, as the Polish government has suspended the right to seek asylum on the Belarusian border, and right-wing politicians instil a fear of migrants in people in order to use it as fuel in the country’s ongoing presidential election. It’s a relevant context for the film, since activists, and even regular citizens, aiding the refugees risk legal repercussions.

Knowing all of this, the protagonists of The Guest – regular folks living in a house close to the border – open the door and let a stranger in. His name is Alhyder; he is in his late twenties and has escaped Al-Assad’s Syria. His hosts – Maciek, his mother, Renata, and his siblings – who barely speak any English, take him in and provide the best care that they can. The situation can’t be permanent, by default, and the patient camera observes how the strangers bond and start to deeply care for one another. It turns out that Alhyder has no real plan as to how to move forwards after crossing the border with Poland. He came with a group, but after they got separated, he became stuck. It’s one of the film’s most powerful moments, pinpointing the tragic situation of the migrants. They escape war or violence at home in order to save their own lives, but very often, they have nowhere to go and no idea how to build a new life “in the West”.

While dealing with this serious and heavy subject matter, the film is nevertheless full of warmth and humour, thanks to Maciek’s kind-hearted personality. His growing attachment to Alhyder and very real and humane investment in his guest’s wellbeing are uplifting and are, in fact, the key strength of the film. Maciek and Renata were welcomed at the meeting with the audience after the MDAG screening of The Guest, receiving a minutes-long standing ovation. The Guest doesn’t shy away from the political context of the story; it just chooses its focus carefully. The audience is left with the awareness that times are dark, but that there are still rays of light and hope shining through.

The Guest is a Polish-Qatari film, produced by Warsaw-based outfit Plesnar & Krauss Films, Wroclaw Feature Film Studio and Al Jazeera Documentary. Its world sales are up for grabs.