In “Mariinka,” Belgian filmmaker Pieter-Jan De Pue tells another story of the war in Ukraine — this time through the perspective of five young people. All of them were at a pivotal life milestone when the war broke out. Overnight their lives were changed. Through intimate observational footage, letters read in voiceover, archival footage of their lives before the war, De Pue shows the devastating and lasting effects of war on the lives of the protagonists. Shot over 10 years, “Mariinka” captures the passage of time and the change it brings, thus becoming a poignant diary of change and resilience but also of crushing loss.
Some of the protagonists have tangential connections to each other, while some are family. However, all come from the eponymous city in Eastern Ukraine. It’s a city of division laying close to the border with Russia. At the center of the fighting, its people’s allegiances are also divided between the two warring factions. Natasha, a promising boxer before the war, becomes a military paramedic. Angela, grieving for her family and friends gone in the war, smuggles goods along the front lines to make a living. In a turn of biblical proportions, brothers Mark and Ruslan fight for opposite sides in the war with vocal animosity towards each other: shades of Cain and Abel. Their younger brother Daniil is adopted by an American family from Mississippi and separated from his brothers and drug addicted mother. Another brother, Maksim, is introduced early on as suffering a debilitating injury from the war. However the filmmakers entirely forget about his story until the end title cards, where the audience gets an update on his whereabouts.
While “Mariinka” is mostly linear in its storytelling, De Pue occasionally cuts back and forth to archival footage shot before the war. Nataasha in particular appears in school, at her graduation in full ballroom regalia, which provides a stark contrast to her life on the front line trying to save lives and dealing with injured soldiers. Angela’s story is one of endurance and grief. The film follows as she takes bold measures to smuggle goods and even babies across the border in a militarized war zone. Is she brave or psychologically detached from the dangers around her? Both her grief and numbness are palpably captured by De Pue’s camera.
The brothers’ story shows not just the friction that separates a family with different patriotic allegiances, but also the geographical and physical separation of having one of them far away in America. Daniil, renamed Samuel by his adoptive parents, stays connected to his brothers through Facetime calls, letters and Christmas gifts. He grows up within the film’s timeline to be a young man of 17. He’s intrigued by military life, not just because his brothers are serving, but also because he grew up in gun culture within his religious Southern family. The filmmakers make a pointed but subtle comparison to the environments in both countries that drove these young people to enlist. While “Mariinka” never explicitly answers that question, it offers the audience many possibilities, including patriotism, religious piety, nationalism and violent cultures.
De Pue, who shot the documentary himself, uses 16mm film, making this visceral narrative feel intimate. The camera lingers on faces to capture the emotions that run through. Using traditional Ukrainian folklore songs, voiceover plus pounding music, the stakes these young people confront become clearly apparent. The war footage shows the destruction and loss of life and limb in close proximity. Adding to the strength of the narrative is the propulsive editing, particularly in putting together the footage shot on the war’s frontlines.
Ultimately “Mariinka” leaves the impression less of a conventional war documentary than of a fragmented chronicle of youth interrupted. De Pue’s patient, intimate camera captures the emotional toll of a decade lived in the shadow of conflict. What lingers by the film’s end is the sense of time passing and lives irrevocably altered, a necessary reminder that the consequences of war extend far beyond the battlefield.
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