Pieter-Jan De Pue

Pieter-Jan De Pue is an independent filmmaker and photographer who graduated from the RITS film academy in Brussels. He gained international recognition with his first feature documentary, The Land of the Enlightened (2016), which won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival. For nearly a decade, Pieter-Jan immersed himself in the Donbass region of Ukraine, developing his new feature documentary Mariinka. Filmed on 16mm, Mariinka exemplifies Pieter-
Jan’s commitment to intimate and observational storytelling. His photographic work has appeared in publications including Weekend Knack, Le Monde, De Morgen, and De Standaard, and has been exhibited at galleries and museums such as Photo Museum Antwerp, deBuren in Brussels, and the Institut des Cultures d’Islam in Paris. Pieter-Jan also directs commercials and contributes to book and museum projects, and is connected to the German photo agency LAIF.

Read about Pieter-Jan De Pue at imdb.com

Mariinka

A film by Pieter-Jan De Pue

2026 - Belgium/Netherlands/Germany/Sweden - Documentary

In Eastern Ukraine, childhood neighbors find their lives violently derailed by a shifting frontline. Natasha, a promising boxing talent, becomes a military paramedic. Angela, who lost her parents at a young age, survives by moving goods to both sides of the front. Caught in a modern Greek tragedy, brothers Mark and Ruslan now fight on opposite sides – against each other. In the safety of his adoptive family in the United States, their youngest brother Daniil follows the war from afar.

Filmed over a decade on 16mm, MARIINKA begins long before the world watched the full-scale invasion. It is the highly anticipated second feature by Pieter-Jan De Pue, following his Sundance award-winning debut, THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED.

The Land of the Enlightened

A film by Pieter-Jan De Pue

2016 - Belgium - Documentary

In the wild Afghan mountains, a gang of Kuchi kids dig out anti-personal mines to collect the explosives,
recycle weapons and keep tight control on the caravans smuggling opium . When they are not waging their own mini-wars in the daily madness of life in Afghanistan, the children are fleeing away in their personal fantasies and dreams, while the American soldiers are planning their retreat...