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.

Cast & Crew
Producer: Bart Van Langendonck, Pieter-Jan De Pue
Director: Pieter-Jan De Pue
Script: Pieter-Jan De Pue
Director of Photography: Pieter-Jan De Pue
Music: Mattis Appelqvist, Dalton Lieven Van Pée
Sound: Senjan Jansen
Editing: Alain Dessauvage, Ciska Slowack, Mauro De Groeve, Julie Naas, Louis De Schrijver, David Dusa
Production: Savage Film

Awards
Audience Award, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2026; Best Belgian Documentary, Docville, Leuven, Belgium, 2026

Pieter-Jan De Pue
Pieter-Jan De Pue is an independent filmmaker and photographer who graduated from the RITS Film Academy in Brussels. He gained international recognition with his first feature documentary, The Land of the Enlightened (2016), which won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance FF. For nearly a decade, Pieter-Jan De Pue immersed himself in the Donbass region of Ukraine, developing his new feature documentary Mariinka. Filmed on 16mm, Mariinka exemplifies Pieter-Jan De Pue’s commitment to intimate and observational storytelling. His photographic work has appeared in publications including Weekend Knack, Le Monde, De Morgen, and De Standaard, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums such as Photo Museum Antwerp, deBuren in Brussels, and the Institut des Cultures d’Islam in Paris. Pieter-Jan De Pue also directs commercials and contributes to book and museum projects, and is connected to the German photo agency LAIF.

Filmography
O (short, 2006), O (doc., 2007), The Land of the Enlightened (doc., 2016), Girls and Honey (short, 2017), Mariinka (doc., 2026)․