The film Mariupolis 2 (1h45), directed by Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravicius killed in Ukraine in April 2022, was added to the official list of films on Tuesday, just days before the opening of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The feature film “shows the life that continues under the bombs and reveals images as tragic as they bring hope”. It will be screened on May 19 and 20, it is specified in a press release.
The entire Festival program will inevitably have the war in Ukraine as a backdrop. “on everyone’s mind”, according to its general delegate Thierry Frémaux. Two generations of Ukrainian filmmakers will be present, with regular Sergei Loznitsa for The Natural History of Destructionon the destruction of German cities by the Allies during the Second World War, but also the young Maksim Nakonechnyi for Bachennya Metelyka (In some perspective).
Born in 1976, Mantas Kvedaravicius made a name for himself with his film, mariupolis (2016) – about the story of a besieged city – shot in Mariupol and premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. Also a doctor in anthropology, Mantas Kvedaravicius wanted to testify as a filmmaker, “as far away as possible from the hustle and bustle of the media and politicians”according to the press release.
The filmmaker, to whom we also owe Barzakh (2011), mariupolis (2016) and Parthenon (2019), was killed trying to leave Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine. “In 2022, he returned to Ukraine, in the Donbass, in the heart of the war, to find the people he had met and filmed between 2014 and 2015. Following his death, his producers and collaborators did everything possible to continue to transmit his work, his vision, his films”specifies the festival in its text.
“His fiancée, Hanna Bilobrova, who accompanied him, was able to bring back the images shot there and put them together with Dounia Sichov, the editor of Mantas“, he adds. The latter declared herself “very moved to announce” projection. “Mantas, thank you”, she tweeted.
I am very moved to announce that Mariupolis 2, which Mantas Kvedaravicius filmed in Mariupol before he died and which I edited, will be at @Festival_Cannes
Thanks to Hanna Bilobrova, Nadia Turincev, Uljana Kim for their trust.
Mantas, thank you. https://t.co/krPpyuNnML— Dounia Sichov (@Eudoxie) May 12, 2022