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a man standing in front of a pile of rubble and destroyed buildings.

SFFILM Festival

Mariupolis 2

Directed by Mantas Kvedaravičius

Lithuania | 112

14 Apr
Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 6:15 pm PT

Description

Seeds of hope thrive amidst great tragedy in this visually remarkable documentary. Shot in March 2022, only weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the film takes place inside and on the grounds of the titular city’s Christian Baptist Evangelical Church. From a woman making soup in the church’s backyard to men sweeping debris from the parking lot to the constant noise of shelling and the rising smoke of multiple fires, this extraordinary record reveals, without comment or voiceover, citizens valiantly trying to survive the daily terrors of war. That sense of tragedy and hope marks the story of the film itself: Russian soldiers captured and killed director Mantas Kvedaravičius, a Lithuanian filmmaker and anthropologist, in April 2022, leaving his partner Hanna Bilbrova to complete this vital account of a city (and country) besieged. Kvedaravičius’s tenderly framed moments of humanity during an unfolding global crisis gain fresh poignancy a year into the war.

Director Mantas Kvedaravičius

Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976-2022) was killed before he could finish Mariupolis 2, slain after being detained by Russian forces. He held a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University, writing his doctoral thesis on the conflict in Chechnya. His inaugural documentary, Barzakh (2011) won the Amnesty International Film Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival. He made a second documentary, Mariupolis (2016), and two features, Parthenon (2019) and Prologos (2022). Mariupolis 2 was the winner of a Golden Eye Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival and the European Documentary award at the European Film Awards.

Film Details

Language Russian

Year 2022

Premiere Bay Area

Runtime 112

Country Lithuania, France, Germany

Director Mantas Kvedaravičius

Producer Uljana Kim, Mantas Kvedaravičius, Nadia Turincev, Omar El Kadi, Thanassis Karathanos, Martin Hampel

Editor Dounia Sichov

Cinematographer Mantas Kvedaravičius

Closed Captions Closed Captions are not currently confirmed and will be updated soon.

Audio Description Audio Descriptions are not currently confirmed and will be updated soon.

American Sign Language (ASL) Interpretation American Sign Language Interpretation is not currently confirmed and will be updated. For any questions about accessibility at SFFILM Events, please email ADA@SFFilm.org.