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.

And how does one continue to live when everything you love is under a vicious attack? Porcelain War argues that you can learn to fight back using all the tools you have, including your art, in order to avoid erasure. “We’re ordinary people in an extraordinary situation” is how co-director Slava Leontyev describes their current life. Meanwhile, there is absolutely nothing ordinary about them — these artists, farmers, IT specialists — coming together to fight their oppressor. Porcelain War is a true cinematic gem. Leontyev and co-director Brendan Bellomo manage to gracefully capture the dissonance between the horrors of war and the fragile beauty of nature and artistic practice. Anya’s and Slava’s porcelain pieces come to life in delicately crafted animations that offer context to their makers’ story and a stunning outlet for processing grief.—AT

This film contains images of violence.

Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).