A vital portrait of a city and a people whose devastation by Russian forces has since horrified the world, from a filmmaker who has paid the ultimate price for his work. Shot in 2016, when Mariupol had already experienced two years of the Donbas war, this is a film about trying to live a normal life with war all around you: bus drivers plan shifts, a cobbler repairs shoes, a violinist gives a recital. When violence intrudes, it is met with a mix of stoicism and denial. Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed in April 2022 by Russian forces while filming the follow-up to what is now a heartbreaking exploration of human lives irrevocably altered.

The license fee for Mariupolis is being donated to the family of Mantas Kvedaravičius.