Mariupolis

The documentary is about the city of Mariupol on the sea of Azov. The city also stands on the river Kalmius; most of its population of close to half a million works at the steel plant and fishes between shifts, for pleasure or for food. The orthodox church looks down over the city, its newly cast bronze domes waiting beside it to be raised. In a tent nearby there is an icon believed to weep, and visitors keep coming. The film does not show the war directly; it records how daily life goes on at the edge of it. The account offers no commentary; it puts sound, place and waiting forward. Mantas Kvedaravicius’s ninety six minute documentary was completed in 2016.