Porcelain War

Porcelain War opens with a title card informing us that almost everything we will see in the movie was shot by the film's subjects. Those folks are Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov. (Leontyev is one of the credited directors, and Stefanov has the sole cinematography credit.) Each of these everyday patriotic Ukrainians is an artist who has chosen to remain in their homes on the outskirts of a city that's been bombed out by the Russian forces that continue to advance deeper into the country. Like most of their countrymen in this area, these amateur filmmakers have also become volunteer soldiers who spend much of their time fighting the Russians. Slava also trains other civilians on how to use machine guns and other weapons of war.

The sequences of these units patrolling the area, rescuing people in collapsed buildings, and using drones to drop small bombs on Russian tanks is quite remarkable, especially the drone's-eye-view footage combined with shots I assume are taken from a second drone filming with the armed one is doing. Astonishing in a different way is the juxtaposition of these scenes of combat and death with scenes of everyday home life and making exquisite art in what appears to be a beautiful, serene area. Watching Slava firing semi-automatic weapons while he reconciles the need to embrace instruments of murder in what he views as a righteous struggle with scenes of him and Anya creating exquisitely detailed porcelain figurines in the couple's home studio is a real mind-bender. Few wartime documentaries about adults capture the normalcy and day-to-day existence of life under occupation during a hot war.

The film's title comes from a quote by Slava stating, "Ukraine is like porcelain, easy to break but impossible to destroy, and the film emphasizes the power and purpose of art and patriotism. There is some incredibly effective animation created by the Polish company BluBlu Studios that is laid over the hand-painted designs of the figurines, which practically put the viewer into a trance as we listen to audio of the film's lead characters talking about the need for national pride, resilience, and beauty. The movie may be a little all over the place in terms of it tone and structure, but it's damn effective.