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 Danil follows the war from afar.

Filmed over a decade on 16mm, MARINKA begins long before the world watched the full-scale invasion. It is the highly anticipated second feature by Pieter-Jan De Pue, folowing his Sundance award-winning debut, THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED.

Pieter-Jan De Pue is an independent filmmaker and photographer who graduated from the RITS film academy in Brussels/Belgium. 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 Film Festival. For nearly a decade, he worked on his new feature documentary: Filmed on 16mm, MARIINKA exemplifies his commitment to intimate and observational storytelling. He also directs commercials and contributes to book and museum projects.

Filmography: 2016 THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED, 2017 GIRLS AND HONEY, 2026 MARIINKA

Awards: Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature (CPH:DOX, Copenhagen/Denmark 2026)