POV, Porcelain War
PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):
Sunday, Oct. 5, at 11 PM
Monday, Oct. 6, at 4 AM
Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):
Monday, Sept. 29, at 10 PM
Saturday, Oct. 4, at noon
PORCELAIN WAR is a visceral and deeply personal film that follows three Ukrainian artists as they choose to fight back against Russia with hand-molded porcelain creatures and handheld cameras. The film is by first-time feature co-directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, a Ukrainian sculptor turned filmmaker, and produced by Aniela Sidorska p.g.a., Paula DuPré Pesmen p.g.a., Camilla Mazzaferro, and Olivia Ahnemann. Razom for Ukraine is an official partner of the film.
Nominated for the 2025 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature and winner of the Grand Jury U.S. Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Festival (2024), PORCELAIN WARbrings to the front lines the transformative power of art. Set against the brutal backdrop of war-torn Ukraine, the film follows artists Slava Leontyev, his wife Anya Stasenko, and their collaborator Andrey Stefanov— ceramicists whose meticulously detailed porcelain creatures stand in haunting contrast to the chaos and destruction around them.
In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, the trio makes the radical decision to stay behind in their home city of Kharkiv. Armed with cameras, clay, and for the first time in their lives, guns, they confront violence not only with force, but with creativity. As daily shelling becomes the norm, Anya clings to her art as a form of resistance and refuge. Slava, a former art teacher, becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely citizen soldiers. Andrey embarks on a perilous mission to get his young family to safety, then returns to document the surreal new reality that has engulfed his homeland. As the war intensifies, on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and the hope for a future rebuilt.
