Mariinka
Southeast Asian Premiere
Pieter-Jan De Pue Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden 2026 94 min M18 (Mature Content and Nudity)
The lives of childhood neighbours—a promising boxer, a young orphan and four brothers—intersect, implode and diverge across a decade of war in this stirring documentary of the battle in Mariinka, a destroyed city in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian city of Mariinka in Donetsk has been under siege by Russian forces since 2014. Natasha, a promising young boxer, suspends her dreams to become a paramedic. Angela, orphaned and separated from her sisters, survives by couriering items to both fronts under fire. While Mark and Ruslan fight for opposing sides in the city they grew up in, their youngest brother Daniil follows the conflict from the US and dreams of following in their footsteps.
The documentary scales the personal cost of war with the destruction of an entire city, capturing the lost dreams and potential of Mariinka’s inhabitants. Shot on 16mm film for over a decade, this immersive portrait of Mariinka is at once a commemoration and lament for a city that once was.
Synopsis Writer: Sasha Han
Standpoint, Q&A
25 Oct, Sun 6:45PM / 94 min
Golden Village Bugis+, Hall 4
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Mariinka
Pieter-Jan De Pue
Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Sweden
2026
English, Ukrainian, Russian
English
94 min
M18 (Mature Content and Nudity)
Southeast Asian Premiere
Pieter-Jan De Pue
Pieter-Jan De Pue is a Belgian documentary filmmaker and photographer. His first feature documentary, The Land of the Enlightened (2016), won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography at Sundance. Mariinka, his second feature, premiered at CPH:DOX as the opening film and won the Audience Award.
Bart Van Langendonck,
Pieter-Jan De Pue