Film About Kharkiv Residents Won Grand Jury Prize at US Sundance Film Festival

UKRAINE, Jan 30 — The documentary film about Kharkiv residents, Porcelain War, is among the winners of the U.S. Sundance Independent Film Festival.

The film tells the story of Slava Leontiev, his wife Ania Stasenko, and Andrii Stefanov, Ukrainian artists who make porcelain animal figurines, and their dog Frodo. The artists stay in Kharkiv, which has been under Russian attack since the first day of the invasion. They continue to create porcelain figurines which they use to decorate destroyed houses.

“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,” the festival jury noted.

Read more: Documentary 20 Days in Mariupol Longlisted for Two BAFTA Awards

The film was directed by American filmmaker Brendan Bellomo and Kharkiv-based artist and former soldier Slava Leontiev, who worked with his wife, Ania Stasenko, to create the porcelain sculptures shown in the film.