ENCOUNTERS 2023: 20 Days in Mariupol

Every year since our founding in 2010, The Bioscope has proudly hosted screenings of The Encounters South African International Documentary Festival. Celebrating its 25 year as a festival, Encounters returns to The Bioscope once again with screenings from 23 June - 2 July. Tickets are R80. BOOKING ESSENTIAL.

SEE THE FULL BIOSCOPE SCHEDULE FOR ENCOUNTERS HERE

20 Days in Mariupol

Mstyslav Chernov | Ukraine/United States | 2023 | 94 min

Following the first 20 days of the war in Ukraine, this remarkable and deeply disturbing film offers a first-person account of the siege of Mariupol, which lasted for 86 days before the city fell to the invading Russian forces. Comprised of footage from a team of Ukrainian journalists who stayed behind to document the war, the documentary offers little context for the violence, instead simply depicting the rapid and wholesale destruction of a city and the lives of those who live in it. Urgent and visceral in its construction, the film is a difficult watch, intentionally so, but it is also riveting, playing out as a heartbreaking thriller in which the audience already knows the inevitable ending. The result is a terrifying document that is a testament to the utter absurdity and pointlessness of this – and all – wars.