Mariinka - Pieter-Jan de Pue,

Belgium, 94 minutes Long before the Russian invasion in 2022, there was already war in the Ukrainian frontline city of Mariinka. Amidst the war, a promising boxing talent becomes a military paramedic, a girl smuggles unexpected goods across the frontline to survive, and two brothers now fight on opposite sides of the frontline – against each other – while their youngest brother lives safely far from the war with a foster family in the Verenigde Staten. Pieter-Jan De Pue recorded the slow disappearance of the city of Mariinka for ten years on brilliant, analog 16mm film. As a result, the harsh reality is captured in an almost poetic and penetrating way.