Mantas Kvedaravicius: Lithuanian filmmaker dies in Mariupol with “camera in hand”

Lithuanian film director Mantas Kvedaravicius, 45, was killed while trying to leave Mariupola port city in southeastern Ukraine besieged by Russian forces, the Ukrainian military announced on Sunday.

“Russian occupiers killed Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravicius, author of the documentary “Mariúpolis”, when he was trying to leave Mariúpol,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry press agency said on Twitter.

The documentary filmmaker’s death was announced by Russian filmmaker Vitali Manski, founder of the respected Moscow festival Artdocfest, to which Mantas Kvedaravicius had already been invited.

“He was killed today in Mariupol, camera in hand, in this shitty war of evil against the whole world,” writes Vitali Manski on Facebook.

On Twitter, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry declared itself “shocked” by the announcement of his death.

“He was killed in Mariupol, where he was documenting the atrocities of the Russian war. His previous film, Mariúpolis (2016), told the story of a besieged city with an intense will to live”, continues the message from Lithuanian diplomacy.

Mantas Kvedaravicius, born in 1976, became known precisely for this film, shot in the Ukrainian city and presented for the first time at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016.

Source: Elcomercio

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