Mariinka

Long before the Russian invasion in 2022, there was already war in the Ukrainian frontline city 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 a city for ten years, but also the fierce, tragic perseverance of those who once called it home. Commentaar Regisseur Pieter-Jan De Pue stood at DOCVILLE again exactly 10 years after his debut, the renowned The Land of the Enlightened. It took that long to make the epic Mariinka. Through letters, video calls and quiet encounters, a story unfolds about connection, national loyalty and the fault lines through which political conflicts can even trump blood ties. De Pue proves himself once again with his successor as an exceptional storyteller and filmmaker who knows how to anchor timeless themes in a harsh social reality, resulting in an opening at DOCVILLE and CPH:DOX. The film was therefore rightly awarded by the jury as Beste Belgische Documentaire during the closing ceremony of DOCVILLE. Press ''Wanneer De Pue lets the powerful images speak for themselves, and fortunately that is very often, his documentary gets the allure of a crushing tragedy. Angela wandering through the devastated landscape with her bicycle while the luminous trails of the overflying ballistic missiles light up the evening sky: a simultaneously terrifying, apocalyptic and unrealistically beautiful tableau.'' - Humo