February 18, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
Ukrainian with subtitles
Culture Representation: Filmed in Ukraine, from 2022 to 2023, the documentary film “Porcelain War” features an all-white group of people .
Culture Clash: Three Ukrainian artists (two men and one woman) keep their artistic projects going while experiencing struggles and life-threatening situations during Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Culture Audience: “Porcelain War” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about how everyday people are coping with grim and dangerous circumstances in war.

“Porcelain War” shows unique perspectives of Ukrainian artists who make porcelain figurines while living with the horrors of Ukraine’s war against Russia. This documentary is a candid and worthy look at determination and hope during war and other turmoil.
Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, “Porcelain War” was filmed in 2022 and 2023. The movie had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Gand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. A year later, “Porcelain War” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film for the 2025 Academy Awards.
“Porcelain War” might get frequent comparisons to director Mstyslav Chernov’s Oscar-winning 2023 documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” another Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary about the Ukraine-Russia war. As the title suggests, Chernov (a professional video journalist) chronicled the terrifying 20 days that he was stuck in his home city of Mariupol, Ukraine, when the war started with Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022. “Porcelain War” is not as harrowing as “20 Days in Mariupol,” which chronicled a lot of death and destruction but also showed the best of humanity with heroic medical rescues and other ways that people helped each other.
“Porcelain War” is more about showing long-term, intimate stories of three particular Ukrainian residents who happen to be artists. These three artists refuse to leave their home country during a time when many of their loved ones have evacuated since the war began. “Porcelain War” also shows the grueling realities of Ukrainian civilians who have to learn military combat skills to defend themselves against Russian invaders.
“Porcelain War” co-director Leontyev, his wife Anya Stasensko and their best friend Andrey Stefanov are three artists who get the spotlight in the documentary. Leontyev and Stasensko have a male Yorkshire Terrier named Frodo who is their constant companion and whom they treat like a son. (Leontyev and Anya Stasensko do not have any human children.) A caption in the beginning of the movie says that all of the footage was filmed by the subjects of the documentary. Leontyev provides the narration. Stefanov is showing as the main cinematographer.
The movie begins not by showing bombed-out buildings or people getting killed but by showing a seemingly peaceful and beautiful field where sunflowers grow and Frodo often frolicks playfully. Stasensko can sometimes be seen lying on her back in the field and enjoyng the sunlight. But these picture-perfect scenes in the movie also show that this field is not too far from the dangers of war. Smoke from explosions can often be seen in the sky above the field.
Leontyev, Stasensko and Stefanov live in Kharkiv, in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Kharkiv is about 25 miles from the Russian border. Leontyev, Stasensko and Stefanov were all in their late 50s to early 60s when “Porcelain War” was filmed.
Leontyev and Stasensko talk about how they met and fell in love. Their families knew each other for years. Stasensko, who is about five or six older than Leontyev, says that she’s known him since he was a baby. The documentary shows a photo of her pushing Leontyev in a pram when he was an infant.
Stasensko says, “We didn’t see much each other until we enrolled in art school. It was just a matter of time before we were collaborating … We chose to work in porcelain. Porcelain is fragil yet everlasting.”
In their artistic partnership of creating porcelain figurines, Leontyev designs and molds the figurines, while Stasensko completes the figurines by painting them. They usually do figurines of animals, wth owls and dragons as the animals they make figurines of the most. The figurines are usually small enough to hold in one hand. These figurines are often placed in abandoned buildings or given to Ukrainian fighters and their children.
Stasensko’s artistic paintings are whimsical and seem inspired by Beatrix Potter illustrations. During certain parts of the “Porcelain War,” there is animation where the paintings on the figurines come life. Stasensko says that when the war began, she didn’t want to make art, but she eventually did and learned to live with her feelings of war apprehension.
Stasensko is the most outwardly optimistic in this trio of artists. She later says, “During the most revolting moments of this war, it’s critically important to just smile once in a while. That’s what I am making art for, in our time, in our country.” She says that nature inspires her the most, such as changing seasons and the evolution of a butterfly.
Leontyev trains civilians on how to defend themselves during this war. There are several scenes with Leontyev and these civilians in combat gear as they do target practice and make bombs. He comments on the political nature of the war by saying that Ukraine was naïve to believe Russia’s past promise to be a protective ally.
Among the civilians shown in this small group of trainees are people who are identified by their first names only: a dairy farmer named Johnny, a furniture sales manager named Korsar, a home contractor named August, a graphic designer named Printer, a weapons designer named Diver and an information technology business analyst named Katya, who is the only woman in the group.
Leontyev says of Russia’s occupation of Crimea: “Because of this occupation, we lost the substance of our lives, our personal space, our garden of Crimea … Resistance to evil must be undeniably persistent, must be uncompromising.” Leontyev comments on his group of combat trainees: “They don’t want to fight one minute longer than they have to.” In other words, these are civilians who are only fighting in war combat because they have to do it.
“Porcelain War” shows the heart-wrenching effects of families being separated by war by chronicling how Stefanov deals with being apart from his wife Lena and their identical twin daughters Anya and Sonya, who were born in Crimea in 2009. Lena and the twins evacuated to Poland but keep in touch through the Internet, which isn’t always easy when Ukraine’s Internet and phone services are frequently disrupted because of war destruction. “Porcelain War” shows whether or not Stefanov reunites with his wife and kids.
The documentary alternates between showing scenes of war and scenes of the artist trying to maintain as “normal” of a domestic life as possible. “Porcelain War” is an admirable example of how beauty of art can exist amongst ugliness of war, how hope can survive amongst despair. Leontyev, Stasensko and Stefanov are three examples of Ukrainians who are not letting the war break surrender their national pride and break their spirits.
Leontyev sums the message of “Porcelain War” when he says: “We are ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. During this genocidal war, the aggressors, at the first opportunity, try to destroy people who contribute to culture. Among them: writers, musicians, teachers and artists. When they erase these people, they erase Ukraine.” Anyone who watches “Porcelain War” can see without a doubt that these artistic resisters refuse to be erased.
Picturehouse released “Porcelain War” in select U.S. cinemas on November 22, 2024.