Mariinka
The documentary Mariinka follows several young Ukrainians whose lives have been forever shaped by more than ten years of war and conflict in the Donbas. Through letters, video calls, and charged silences, a moving story unfolds about connection, national loyalty, and the rifts where political conflicts even split family ties.
Natasha, a promising boxing talent, becomes a military medic. Angela, who lost her parents at a young age, gets by by smuggling goods across both sides of the front. Meanwhile, brothers Mark and Ruslan get caught up in a Greek tragedy: they stand directly against each other, on opposite sides of the conflict. Their youngest brother Daniil follows the war from a distance, safe with his adoptive family in the United States.
Filmed over a period of ten years on 16mm, Mariinka starts long before the world witnessed the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which the city was almost completely destroyed. It’s the long-awaited second film by Pieter-Jan De Pue, after his Sundance Film Festival award-winning debut, The Land of the Enlightened.
