The world premiere of Mariinka, the second feature documentary by Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue (The Land of the Enlightened), allows Cph:dox, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, to open its 23rd edition with a cinematic experience that takes audiences inside Ukrainian lives shaped by war. Going beyond the daily news tidbits and headlines, the doc, shot on 16mm film, brings urgency and nuance alike to the story of people from what is now a destroyed city in the Donbas region.
The co-production between Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden covers an extended period of time, beginning long before the world watched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which eventually led to Mariinka being destroyed, with no civilians living there anymore.
The film follows several young Ukrainians whose lives have been forever shaped by more than 10 years of war and conflict in the Donbas region. Among them are a…