Tribute to Mantas Kvedaravičius
(1976 -2022)
Lithuanian filmmaker, anthropologist, and archaeologist known for war reporting in hostile areas
Best Documentary, European Film Awards, Reykjavik
“Our special prize goes to the film impossible to compare with any other from the competition. To the very radical, courageous, artistic and existential statement of Mariupolis 2. The director Mantas Kvedaravicius is among the thousands of civilians killed by the Russian army since the start of the full-scale Putin invasion.”
The Golden Eye Special Award, Cannes
"The director of this film, my dad, is unable to be here today, so I’d just like to say how proud of him I am", said Tėja Kvedaravičiūtė, Mantas Kvedaravičius's daughter. "He lost his life in a kind of selflessness most of us can't hope to achieve, delivering medicine to people. I feel so fortunate to have had someone so brilliant in my life."
The filmmaker, who studied anthropology, favored the point of view of the observer. His camera places itself on the side of life, survivors and everyday life reduced to the most elementary.
In April, while filming what would become Mariupolis 2, he was captured and killed by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol. His final documentary captures war's chaos.
His first documentary, BARZAKH (2011), based on Kvedaravičius’ PhD field work, was produced with the support of Aki Kaurismäki. The film, about the effects of persecution and abduction in Chechnya, premiered at the Berlinale, receiving the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention and the Amnesty International Film Award.
MARIUPOLIS (2016), is a study of the city, dedicated “to its poets and shoemakers.”
“The idea of “Mariupolis” was to show the course of life during wartime — how regular people carry on with their everyday lives mere steps away from a war zone, gunshots, explosions and death. It is a film about the pricelessness of every second of life. It is not about war, but about life next to war and lived in spite of war.”
His third film, PARTHENON (2019), filmed between Odessa, Athens and Istanbul, ventures towards the realms of fiction, in what he describes as a long-term project on “dispossession and desire” that also includes the recently released PROLOGOS (2022).
MARIUPOLIS 2 (2022) is a document of the war in Ukraine that’s as raw and real as they come.
Tėja Kvedaravičiūtė receives her father’s European Film Award for Best Documentary.
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