Special Mention of the Jury!!

Sensational!!

Thrilled to announce that the documentary The Rain Won’t Let Us Fly, the debut film by Spanish directors Ignacio Marín and Rubén Díez, has been awarded a Special Mention from the Jury at BALINALE, the Bali International Film Festival (Indonesia), where it had its world premiere this week.

This is the first accolade this magnificent film has received on its debut on the international film festival circuit.

Balinale is one of the most prestigious film festivals in the Asian film industry. It also serves as a qualifying event for the Hollywood Oscars.

The two filmmakers will fly from Indonesia to Italy to present the film at the Milan Film Festival this Sunday.

Synopsis:

In the third year of the war in Ukraine, ‘The Rain Won’t Let Us Fly’ delves into the most human and devastating side of the conflict. Through the voices of those living the war on the front line, the documentary reveals the brutal transformation of everyday lives into a nightmare with no apparent end.

Director Statement

In the middle of a frozen forest, a few kilometers from the Donbas front, explosions thunder all around. As he unearths a human femur from the snow, Oleksii, the leader of the body recovery team, says: “Humanity has gone mad.” In that moment we knew we had come to the right place to tell the story of this war.
We didn’t go to Ukraine to document military strategies or analyze geopolitics. We went to tell the human stories of ordinary people whom war overtook. People with civilian lives—bakers, butchers, bank workers, doctors—whose existence changed radically due to decisions made in offices miles away.
For two weeks we traveled through trenches, evacuation points, field hospitals, and bombed houses. We met forcibly conscripted soldiers who weeks earlier had completely normal lives. We accompanied civilians who refuse to abandon their homes even under constant bombardment. We documented teams recovering bodies—both Ukrainian and Russian.
What we found were trapped people. Soldiers in trenches who don’t want to be there but have no choice. Elderly people in empty houses waiting for the war to pass. Young people operating drones who have killed hundreds without seeing their faces. Civilians trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid rubble.
We heard voices repeating the same thing: exhaustion, fear, a desire for this to end. This documentary is about how war transforms everyday lives into nightmares. How people who worked in a furniture factory are now in trenches. How grandmothers who tended their gardens now live in basements.
We wanted to show the war from a completely human perspective, leaving politics aside. Because in the end, wars are decided by others, but suffered by ordinary people who just wanted to live their lives.
These are their stories.

Ignacio Marín and Rubén Díez
June 2026

This is the first feature film by these two Spanish filmmakers, who are as talented as they are courageous and determined, and whom Mailuki Films wholeheartedly supports.