Lithuanian Filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius Killed in Mariupol

Lithuanian filmmaker and anthropologist Mantas Kvedaravičius, 45, was killed in Mariupol, Ukraine, while attempting to leave the besieged city. His car was hit by a rocket; he died in hospital. Kvedaravičius was known for award-winning documentaries including Barzakh (2011) about Chechnya and Mariupolis (2016), which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and focused on daily life under threat during the 2014 Donbas conflict. He had returned to Mariupol to continue documenting the war and was killed "with a camera in his hand," according to Russian-Latvian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, director of the Artdocfest documentary festival in Moscow. Kvedaravičius held a master's degree in cultural anthropology from the UK and was completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge. Lithuanian Ambassador to the US Audra Plepyte tweeted that he was killed while documenting Russian war atrocities. In 2019, he premiered his visionary film Parthenon at the Venice International Film Critics' Week.