We’re introducing Night Mode … Try it out with the sun/moon icon at the top left. Or change font settings with the ‘A’ to make the site work for you.
Got it
ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
0 / 256
ICA EXCLUSIVE Mariupolis
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Mariupolis, dir. Mantas Kvedaravičius, Lituania / Germany / France / Ukraine 2016, 96 min., Russian, Ukrainian and Greek with English subtitles

The images emerging from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol have horrified the world. Released in 2016, Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius’s film captures his adopted home city as it was, set against the backdrop of an earlier stage in the Russian onslaught – and this haunting time capsule is made even more poignant by the death this month of its director, killed by Russian forces while fleeing the city on 2 April 2022.

Mariupolis is less a film about war than a film about trying to live a normal life while war rages behind you. Bus drivers plan shifts; a cobbler repairs shoes; a steel mill continues making the stuff of industry; the conflict is largely off-screen. 

‘[The] basic premise … is that aesthetics and politics are intrinsically intertwined, [and] any choice within cinematic language is already a claim. Yet it considers that long-term cinematic observation of the minutiae of everyday life could precisely unravel the complex historicity and cultural forces at work in a transformation of the polity,’ said Kvedaravičius. 

With Kvedaravičius’s tragic death, that task of long-term cinematic observation now falls to others.
 
Ticket information
  • All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
  • For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student and pensioner) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
£13 Full, £11 Concessions, £6.50 Green/Blue Members

Weekday matinees: £8 Full, £6 Concessions, £4 Green/Blue Members

Face coverings are compulsory in the Cinemas. More on COVID-19 safety

All films are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with a 10 min. curated selection of trailers.

Red Members gain unlimited access to all exhibitions, films, talks, performances and Cinema 3.
Join today for £20/month.