Country: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden
Year: 2026
Duration: 94'
In Eastern Ukraine, childhood neighbors find their lives violently derailed by a shifting frontline. Natasha, a promising boxing talent, becomes a military paramedic. Angela, who lost her parents at a young age, survives by moving goods to both sides of the front. Caught in a modern Greek tragedy, brothers Mark and Ruslan now fight on opposite sides – against each other. In the safety of his adoptive family in the United States, their youngest brother Daniil follows the war from afar.
Biography
film director
Pieter-Jan De Pue
(Belgium), a filmmaker and photographer, graduated from the RITCS Film Academy in Brussels. He gained international recognition with his first feature-length documentary, The Land of the Enlightened (2016), which won an award at Sundance, and then spent ten years in the war zones of Ukraine making his second feature, Mariinka. His photographic work has appeared in various publications, including “Weekend Knack,” “Le Monde,” “De Morgen,” and “De Standaard,” and has been exhibited in galleries and museums such as the Photo Museum in Antwerp, deBuren in Brussels, and the Institut des Cultures d’Islam in Paris. He also directs commercials and contributes to book and museum projects, and is affiliated with the German photo agency LAIF.
FILMOGRAFIA
Girls and Honey (cm, doc, 2015), The Land of the Enlightened (doc, 2016), Mariinka (doc, 2026).
Declaration
film director
“February 24, 2022. Everything changed. I was in Kyiv when the full-scale invasion began. As the capital was surrounded and millions fled, Mariinka grew closer to the frontline. My crew and I found ourselves no longer just observers, but participants, helping to evacuate civilians from the falling cities. The personal stakes for everyone in Mariinka shifted violently.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Pieter-Jan De Pue. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pieter-Jan De Pue. EDITING: Alain Dessauvage, Ciska Slowack, Mauro De Groeve, Julie Naas, Louis De Schrijver, David Dusa. MUSIC: Mattis Appelqvist, Dalton Lieven Van Pée. SOUND: Senjan Jansen. CAST: Nataliia Borodynia, Anzhela Pisareva, Mark Zolotko, Maksym Zolotko, Ruslan Zolotko, Samuel Scruggs (Daniil Zolotko), Denys Beltikov, Jeanette Scruggs, Micheal Scruggs. PRODUCTION: Bart Van Langendonck, Pieter-Jan De Pue for Savage Film. COPRODUCTION: Beetz Brothers Film Production, Submarine, Sublime, Dark Riviera, Naoko Films, Shelter Prod, ZDF/Arte, RTBF, VRT, VPRO, SVT. CONTACT: Rūta Švedkauskaitė, Films Boutique ruta@filmsboutique.com
