Movies

Discover the Heartfelt Artistry Behind Ukraine’s Oscar-Nominated Documentary ‘Porcelain War’

BBG News

Conflict often draws in tale-spinners, with various types emerging at different stages of the chronicle. Typically, reporters are the earliest to arrive, preceding authors and scholars who later construct a larger narrative around the events. Artists, however, often follow behind, but their creations, once unveiled to the world, can carry the most profound impact.

The unveiling of the Oscar-nominated documentary titled “Porcelain War,” detailing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, underscores that the creators have come forth to share their unique perspective on this narrative, and it deviates significantly from what experts and journalists have presented so far. For the filmmakers, this wasn’t a chance occurrence. As Slava Leontyev, one of the co-directors, shared with me recently, his primary concern while making the film was to avoid creating something akin to a news report. His collaborator on the project, Anya Stasenko, further emphasized this: “I rejected the idea of focusing on bloodshed, violence, and gore.

The movie is based in Kharkiv, a city on the border with Russia that has been directly impacted by war. The violence of the conflict permeates the film, and it does not shy away from its brutal reality. Russian artillery bombards the city relentlessly, leaving destruction in its wake and claiming thousands of lives, causing over a million civilians to evacuate. One of the directors, Leontyev, is a member of the Ukrainian special forces, and we are given a glimpse into their battles through footage captured by cameras attached to their uniforms.

In contrast to the rest of the movie’s mood, this particular scene presents a different perspective – it’s about the opposite of war: the elegance and human spirit that war destroys. Instead of focusing on the conflict itself, it highlights three artists: Leontyev, Stasenko, and their friend Andrey Stefanov, who is both an oil painter and the film’s cinematographer. In this movie, these artists engage in the battle not just with weapons but by persisting in creating art amidst the constant wailing of air-raid sirens. This artistic struggle, as Leontyev puts it, serves as a powerful form of resistance against the Russians, whose intentions in this war extend beyond conquering Ukrainian land; they aim to annihilate Ukrainian culture as well.

In this movie’s title, ‘porcelain’ symbolizes the intricate figurines crafted by the artists, featuring fantastical beings such as a small dragon and a pegasus. During his breaks from instructing civilians on rifle use, Leontyev sculptures and molds these figurines, while Stasenko adorns them with her stunning illustrations. Their acquaintance, the inexperienced cinematographer Andrey Stefanov, takes on the role of the film’s director of photography, showcasing an impressive skill in composing each scene, despite his lack of prior experience in camera work.

Initially, all three artists were not professional filmmakers but amateurs. During the onset of the Russian invasion, they relied heavily on their American collaborator, Brandan Bellomo, who was a writer, editor, and co-director of the film, for the necessary equipment to produce their work. Regrettably, Bellomo did not travel to Ukraine to offer assistance in person. Instead, he tutored them via lengthy video calls on how to operate the cameras and microphones he sent to Kharkiv through couriers, who frequently accompanied shipments of humanitarian aid.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, I, as a humble spectator and admirer, find it challenging to reconcile the exquisite technical finesse demonstrated in “Porcelain War” with the fact that its creators, hailing from Ukraine, were essentially winging it. This film, which recently won the Grand Jury prize at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival for best U.S. documentary, has been garnering accolades left and right. The cinematographer, Stefanov, has even earned a nomination for the American Society of Cinematographers Documentary Award – an impressive feat for a debutant. To top it all off, last month “Porcelain War” was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature.

The Oscar for that category was awarded last year to another film chronicling war events, titled “20 Days in Mariupol.” This remarkable piece of journalism was produced amidst the Russian blockade and bombardment of Mariupol, a city in southern Ukraine. Its creator, Mstyslav Chernov, who is a war correspondent for Associated Press, has frequently expressed his wish to portray the reality of war in its full brutality, while acknowledging the inherent dangers involved.

He remarked in January 2023, during the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, that witnessing people crying is tough. When you subject an audience to a 90-minute immersion into chaos, disorder, and violence, there’s a chance they might become overloaded or even retreat due to the intensity of the violence depicted.

In a more relaxed and conversational style: The finesse of the movie titled “Porcelain War“, which debuted in the U.S. in November, skillfully steers clear of sensationalism. At its core lies the love story between Leontyev and Stasenko, who we see engaged in peaceful activities like creating figurines in their workshop or strolling their dog Frodo through the mine-ridden forests near Kharkiv. These tranquil scenes prompted one of my war-hardened journalist friends to comment that the movie lacks combat action and its tempo is more leisurely than usual for a war documentary.

However, its method addresses the challenge Chernov identified when distributing “20 Days in Mariupol”. As the conflict progresses, maintaining audience engagement becomes increasingly difficult for journalists. Aware of this risk from the outset, President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former filmmaker and comedian, expressed his concern about it in April 2022, two months into the Russian invasion. “Sadly,” he told me, “our war is perceived primarily through large social networks. People see this war on Instagram. When they grow tired of it, they will scroll away. It’s a lot of violence, a lot of emotion, and that exhausts people.

Approximately a year and a half had passed since our previous conversation about this issue, and when we revisited it, Zelensky felt the situation was deteriorating. “War fatigue sweeps through like a tide,” he shared with me in autumn of 2023. “You can observe it in the United States, in Europe. And as people begin to grow weary, they start treating it like a performance: ‘I don’t want to watch this repeat for the tenth time.’

Zelensky’s approach to this predicament has been to traverse the globe, engaging with journalists and persuading foreign leaders to resist what certain Western commentators call “Ukraine fatigue.” Instead, the film titled “Porcelain War” proposes an alternative method for tackling this issue. Through its enchanting aesthetics and compelling characters, it resonates on a level that only art can achieve. As the conflict reaches its fourth year, Ukraine requires fresh narratives to portray the war, and artists might prove to be its most influential communicators.

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2025-02-14 16:10

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