Tales from the Heart
87 mins | 2024
Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev
Porcelain War
A stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the passion and fight that artists put into the world crumbling around them. Extraordinary footage filmed by everyday civilians tells an unforgettable story about Ukraine and all of us.
Screenings
Best of the Fest
FRIDAY, March 28, 2025 7:00 PM
SJI Library
There is no second screening of this film.
Online:
This film is in-theatre only and not available on-demand.
Sponsored by:
Waterworks Gallery
Filmmaker Q&A:
(following each in-theatre screening)
A pre-recorded interview with Director Brendan Bellomo follows the screening.
About
Winner of the 2024 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary
Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns.
Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future.
Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.
“Porcelain War” is a stunning tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, embodying the passion and fight that only artists can put back into the world when it’s literally crumbling around them. With extraordinary footage filmed by everyday civilians, it is a story far bigger than Ukraine, it’s an unforgettable story about all of us.
“Resisting totalitarian aggression is necessary, but holding onto your humanity amid the onslaught is the ultimate pursuit of good. The making of this film — a film full of pathos and violence, porcini and dragonlets — is in and of itself this pursuit.
For its unwavering voice from inside the brutal war in Ukraine calling us to care about those who would sacrifice their lives to defend their humanity and ours, and since at present there is no Sundance Jury Award for best dog, the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary goes to Porcelain War.”
— Sundance Film Festival Jury Statement (2024)
FILMMAKER BIO
Brendan Bellomo (top), SLAVA LEONTYEV
BRENDAN BELLOMO (Director, Writer, Editor) was the recipient of a 2009 Student Academy Award® for Live Action Narrative. Bellomo’s passion for storytelling was first sparked when he was a child. Beginning his career in visual effects, he supervised the 2012 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar® nominee for Best Picture “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (Fox Searchlight). Most recently, Bellomo was the executive producer of the Netflix Original “Chupa.” Bellomo worked closely with Annie Leibovitz on the global exhibit “Women: New Portraits” and designed the curriculum for the first visual effects course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, which led him on the path to eventually pair with his directing partner, Slava Leontyev.
SLAVA LEONTYEV (Director, Film Subject) is a first-time director born into a family of biologists in Ukraine. Merging his love of nature and art, Leontyev has spent his life studying painting, photography, graphic design, and art theory. Alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Anya Stasenko, Leontyev now creates the porcelain sculptures featured in this film. He is also a former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces and a highly regarded weapons instructor for civilians who are currently defending their country against Russian aggression.
CREDITS
Director
Brendan Bellomo
Director
Slava Leontyev
Writer
Aniela Sidorska
Extra Ordinary
Writer
Brendan Bellomo
Chupa, Extra Ordinary
Writer
Paula DuPre' Pesmen
The Cove, Chasing Ice, Quincy, Keep On Keepin' On
Producer
Aniela Sidorska
Producer
Paula DuPre' Pesmen
The Cove, Chasing Ice, Quincy, Keep On Keepin' On
Producer
Camilla Mazzaferro
A Fire Inside, My Sister Liv, Girl's Can't Surf
Producer
Olivia Ahnemann
The Cove, Racing Extinction, Under the Gun, Youth v Gov, The Human Element
Key Cast
Slava Leontyev
Key Cast
Anya Stasenko
Key Cast
Andrey Stefanov