MARIUPOLIS 2 Documentary

US Premiere

Screening to be followed by a conversation with producer Omar El Kadi.

Following up on his 2016 documentary MARIUPOLIS, Mantas Kvedaravičius returned to the besieged city of Mariupol to document life under Russia-occupied Ukraine. On April 2, 2022, while attempting to leave, he was captured and murdered by Russian soldiers. His partner, Hanna Bilobrova, escaped with the footage, and with the help of Kvedaravičius’ longtime editor Dounia Sichov, they meticulously completed MARIUPOLIS 2, a raw tribute of resilience and reckoning. The film follows a group of Ukrainian citizens sheltered in a Christian church under the constant thundering of distant bombs. Lingering in vérité long takes, Kvedaravičius holds us witness to the often unceremonious tedium of survival, as the group forages in the city’s ruins amongst dead bodies and futilely cleans the church courtyard of debris. But amid everyday adversity, we also observe their communal solidarity and an enduring glimmer of hope. –Anna Li