Still: Mariinka - Pieter-Jan De Pue

Amsterdam-based production outfit Submarine has never shirked from taking on the most challenging of projects. Now, it is the Dutch co-producer on Belgian director Pieter-Jan De Pue’s harrowing feature doc Mariinka which focuses on the lives of young Ukrainians caught up in different ways in the chaos and destruction of the war with Russia.

The project, which its director has been working on for many years, receives its world premiere as the opening film at CPH:DOX and will be seen in the Netherlands for the first time at Movies That Matter. 

Originally called Four Brothers, the film focuses on a divided family in Eastern Ukraine. Four siblings have grown up in an orphanage together but one brother, Ruslan, has ended up fighting for Russia while another, Mark, is in the Ukrainian army.

Submarine had already co-produced De Pue’s previous feature, The Land Of The Enlightened (2016), a widely praised hybrid documentary made in Afghanistan that screened in Sundance and was nominated for a European Film Award. This was also majority-produced by Bart Van Langendonck’s Flemish outfit, Savage Films.

“We had been collaborating with Savage Film for many years,” Submarine’s Sasja Opdam explains what drew the Dutch company toward De Pue’s work. “We knew each other’s companies and we knew the people we would be working with.”

On a reciprocal basis, Savage had also come in as minority Belgian co-producer on several of Submarine’s own projects, for example Last Hijack (2014), directed by Tommy Pallotta and Submarine co-founder Femke Wolting. 

When Submarine was first pitched Four Brothers in 2019, Opdam remembers that “it looked very promising…it was a very intriguing, tragic story. It was also very beautifully shot. Another thing Pieter-Jan does is that he incorporates a fictionalised style in his documentaries.”

After receiving support for the project from the Netherlands Film Fund, image post-production was completed at Flow, which has offices at Oosterhout. Furthermore, Dutch colourist Petro Van Leeuwen worked very closely with director De Pue. 

“It was quite a long project,” Opdam says of the doc which was re-thought after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Instead of concentrating entirely on the four brothers, the director foregrounded the stories of Natasha, a young woman working as a medic in the Ukrainian army, and Angela, a woman who makes a living by smuggling. The title was eventually changed to Mariinka, the name of the town where all the characters once lived - and which the Russians destroyed. 

Submarine kept the Film Fund informed of the delays to the project. “The fund was supportive,” Opdam says.

“They [The Netherlands Film Fund] were very understanding of the situation…it was a very challenging project in terms of delays due to filming in Ukraine and getting to the point where the film was fully finished.”

It helped that “communication worked so well” with Van Langendonck, the founder of Savage (who last year partnered with Peter De Maegd of Potemkino, but still maintained control of Mariinka).  

“We trust each other” Opdam says, and adds that the Submarine staff had calls during the editing process on which they were joined by the director. De Pue also briefed them thoroughly as his documentary evolved. 

Savage, Submarine and Beetz Brothers in Germany were the original producers, but other partners came on board, including Dark Riviera in Sweden. Dutch broadcaster VPRO also later became involved. Periscoop Film will handle the Dutch release of the movie.

At Submarine, co-founder Femke Wolting oversees the scripted productions and documentary projects while her partner in the company, Bruno Felix, deals with animation films and series. (The company is also well known for its animation and FX work). However, late on during the making of Mariinka, Katja Draaijer, co-founder of Baldr Film and now the documentary consultant at the Netherlands Film Fund, also played a role. (At the time, she was working as a development exec for Submarine).

Opdam’s pride in the project is self-evident and is soon to head to Copenhagen for the world premiere. 

“I will definitely be there for the opening night,” she declares. 

Find out more about CPH:DOX here.