Seattle International Film Festival presents the documentary movie “Porcelain War” co-produced and co-directed by the local filmmaker and the member of the Seattle Polish community Aniela Sidorska (Jr.). The film received the US Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and Best Documentary and People’s Choice Awards at the 2024 Boulder International Film Festival.
As the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, Kharkiv-based Slava Leontyev and Anya Stasenko make tiny porcelain figurines. What does it mean to continue with their artistic passions as the world crumbles around them?
“Ukraine is like porcelain, easy to break, but impossible to destroy.” —Co-director, Brendan Bellomo
Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living. The award-winning feature documentary Porcelain War argues that, while under a vicious attack, you can learn to fight back using all the tools you have including your art. Imbued with the striking nature of Kharkiv, the film also features music by Ukrainian force of sound DakhaBrakha, which is not easily forgotten. “We’re ordinary people in an extraordinary situation” is how co-director Slava Leontyev describes their current life. Though there is nothing ordinary about them—these artists, farmers, IT specialists—they together to fight their oppressor. Porcelain War is a sobering and hopeful cinematic experience. Co-directors Leontyev and Bellomo manage to capture the dissonance between the horrors of war and the fragile, artful beauty of nature. Anya and Slava’s porcelain pieces come to life in intricately crafted animations that offer context to their story and a vital, beautiful outlet for processing grief. —Eden Sapir.
The movie is available at two screenings: at SIFF Cinema Downtown (Cinerama) on Sunday, April 12 at 6 pm and at SIFF Cinema Uptown on Monday, April 13 at 4 pm. Later it is available in SIFF streaming from April 20 to April 27.