One of the most acclaimed documentaries of the year thus far, Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev’s Porcelain War premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year where it picked up the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. Now set for a November 22 rollout, the first trailer has landed.
Here’s the synopsis: “PORCELAIN WAR is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the enduring hope and passion of ordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances. As war ravages their homeland, three artists choose to stay in their native Ukraine, armed with their art, their cameras, and for the first time in their lives, their guns.”
Dan Mecca said in his review, “Quiet scenes between Slava and Anya are arguably more effective than the sequences of battle and rubble. Anya paints on the porcelain figures Slava makes, and the filmmakers animate these paintings as the duo recall Russia’s 2014 capture of Crimea that changed everything. “It’s hard to forbid people to live,” they say. These recollections do well to contextualize the present moment. Once Crimea fell, most Ukrainians knew it was time to get ready to fight for their homeland. The when wasn’t certain, only the who and what.”