The Centre for Monitoring of Racism and Xenophobic Behaviour (OMZRiK) has sued Polish President Andrzej Duda because he allegedly called Poles who watched Agnieszka Holland’s film “pigs,” Polish media reported on Sunday.
The film tells, among other things, the stories of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, who are trying to enter the EU through the border between Belarus and Poland. The director showed how Belarusian propaganda allegedly lures migrants to the border for an “easy transition to the EU.” Duda said:
The fact that Ms. Holland thus shows Polish officials who do their job for Polish society, for the safety of all of us, the safety of Poland, then I am not surprised that the Border Guard officers who watched this film used the slogan “Only pigs sit in the cinema.”
The words for which Duda could to be prosecuted were aired on the programme “News Guest” on September 20, 2023. Then the Polish president said that he was “upset that the film allegedly strongly denigrates Polish officers and shows them almost as sadists.”
The film directed by Agnieszka Holland premiered at the 80th Venice Film Festival in September 2023. The film won the Special Jury Prize.
The case against the president will be heard by the District Court of Warsaw on October 24, 2025. The court hearing will take place remotely and everyone will be able to join it online. OMZRiK said that before the hearing, a link will be made public for the public to watch the trial.
