‘Between Borders’ Calls to Christians

Four-year-old Olga Petrosyan and her grandmother huddled in the apartment as the mob of men pounded on the door. “Where are the Petrosyans?” the men shouted. When Olga began crying, her grandmother placed a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.

Eventually, after a friendly neighbor said no one was home, the men disappeared. The year was 1988, on the eve of an ethnic and territorial conflict between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenians that still persists today. The Petrosyans had already faced growing hostility from Azerbaijanis, but the threat of death had never arrived on their doorstep before.

Their home had become uninhabitable. With a couple suitcases and a guitar, the family of four boarded a train out of Azerbaijan. Three years later, their apartment would be torched as the country erupted in war.

The Petrosyan family’s journey—from Azerbaijan to Russia and eventually to the United States—is dramatized in the new film Between Borders, premiering January 26. Starring The Chosen’s Elizabeth Tabish as Violetta, the fierce mother of Olga and Julia, the film depicts the family’s struggle to belong as they encounter persecution in Azerbaijan and later in Russia. The film is a tribute to the plight and perseverance of displaced peoples, as well as an urgent reminder of the role of the church as a haven for those who have lost their homes.

“I think there is a common experience for all refugees that home is everywhere and home is nowhere,” Olga Petrosyan, who is now working for a church in Kentucky, said in an interview with Christianity Today. “You will blend in to make it safe for you anywhere you go. But you will also never feel belonging.”

The film opens in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the Petrosyans experience signs of impending unrest. Ivan Petrosyan (played by Patrick Sabongui), who works as a rocket scientist, notices that the window of a local Armenian bakery has been shattered, and Violetta and the girls encounter a mob calling for death to Armenians.

The Petrosyans leave before the worst of the violence—the ensuing pogroms in Baku will result in dozens of Armenians being killed—but the onset of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory will make returning impossible.

In the city of Volgograd, Russia, the Petrosyans try to build a home in a shoe-box apartment with peeling walls and a broken heater. The gloomy conditions are enlivened by a visit from an American missionary named Dwayne, a Christian from a local Nazarene church plant, who brings boxes full of supplies. It’s the Petrosyans’ first encounter with Christianity, and soon they begin attending church. (The congregation in Volgograd was founded by Lonnie Norris, an American missionary who moved to Russia to plant churches. He is the executive producer of the film; his son Isaac is a writer and producer.)

Violetta, a former Communist party member, said in an interview with Christianity Today that at first she attended church to learn English. But her interest in grammar and syntax soon evolved into appreciation for the Good News that she belonged in the family of God.

Her daughter Olga remembered visiting the church in a cold, dark building that used to be a Soviet government office. When she entered, she immediately felt warmth radiating from the congregation. These Russian Christians were different from the Russians in their neighborhood, who treated them with disdain for being foreigners.

“All these people rushed to greet us, and for the first time I felt like they really cared about who I was as a person,” Olga said. “As a 9-year-old, I was trying to figure out, Why are they so happy? Why do they love me? Why is there so much joy in this place?

Awed by the church’s generous acts of service, the Petrosyans eventually became Christians. In Between Borders, Ivan is the last to convert, reluctant to join a faith he sees as foreign and frivolous. But when the pastor offers him a job as the church’s maintenance man, he begins to overhear sermons about the Prodigal Son as he tightens hinges and fixes floors. Soon he too accepts the gospel.

The city of Volgograd never fully welcomes the Petrosyans, who regularly experience racist barbs, physical intimidation, and religious persecution; eventually, with the help of an American congregation of the Church of the Nazarene in West Virginia, they seek asylum in the United States. The film doesn’t delve into the specifics of the church’s aid, but Lonnie Norris said in an interview that the church helped the family find jobs and a lawyer for their asylum case.

Between Borders culminates in a climactic courtroom scene, in which the judge overseeing the Petrosyans’ asylum case declares that America should be a “nation of freedom, enlightenment, and compassion, a democracy that gives hope to those who have lost all hope, a land of refuge.” It’s a political manifesto that has extra resonance given the context surrounding the film’s release date. Between Borders premieres less than a week after the swearing in of President Donald Trump, who has promised to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration—including reinstating a policy from his first term that had asylum seekers “remain in Mexico” while their cases were being heard and suspending a refugee resettlement program.

“We’re not trying to make a political statement, but we do understand that it will be in some ways,” said writer and producer Isaac Norris.

The film doesn’t have the time or space to uncover the United States’ complicated relationship with asylum seekers, as more Americans want immigration levels reduced. The Petrosyans may have ultimately won their asylum case, but the film elides the stories of many others who have been turned away.

Perhaps America will always be fickle in its concern for the world’s huddled masses. But Between Borders suggests the church should be unwavering in its commitment to care for the sojourner. What is most striking about the final scene isn’t the pronouncement from a judge about the ideal of America; it is the presence in the courtroom of dozens of people from the Petrosyans’ church, who have come to show their love and support for the beleaguered family.

As Christians, we are each caught between borders, situated as we are between the present principality of darkness and the future coming of the risen King. We are sojourners and exiles, strangers in a foreign country (1 Pet. 2:11). Like Abraham, we look forward to a future home, “a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10).  

As people journeying to our heavenly home, Between Borders suggests that Christians should take the lead in serving refugees. Our care should be sacrificial and countercultural, so radical in nature that the only possible explanation is that we have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). Is it possible that the very mark of our set-apart-ness might be the way we generously and joyfully open our hearts and homes to those who are displaced? Could this deepen our understanding of Jesus, who sojourned here on our behalf?

At one point, Ivan is astounded and confused by the church’s generosity toward his family. He asks the pastor in Volgograd why the church members are being so kind to the Petrosyans.

“Jesus was a refugee too,” the pastor replies.

Christopher Kuo is a freelance journalist based in Ireland. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Duke Magazine, and elsewhere. 

The post ‘Between Borders’ Calls to Christians appeared first on Christianity Today.

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