This event is part of the 2025 Ukrainian Studies Conference: Revolutions of Hope: Resilience and Recovery in Ukraine, with introductions and moderation by Prof. Tetyana Shlikhar.
Prior to the screening of Porcelain War (2024), Prof. Ian Kuijt will present a special "Revolutions of Hope" Filmmaker Award, honoring the extraordinary work of Ukrainian Catholic University M.A. student Snizhana Gusarevych for her forthcoming feature film Flowers of Mars (which has a 2026 scheduled release). Attendees will watch an early trailer of the film.
Flowers of Mars explores how Ukrainians try to live and honor the memory of their fallen soldiers, to feel collective pain, not to close their eyes to death and suffering, but to share their grief. As of March 2025, over 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been buried in the city of Lviv. This social documentary explores how loss is memorialized, how public memory and identity are created and recreated, and how the daily public funeral ceremonies of the military serve as an anchor of memory and place for the local community and grieving families.
Admission is free, but tickets are required. Reserve through the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center box office online, in-person, or via phone.
Porcelain War (2024)
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. Co-directed by Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, with extraordinary footage from first-time cinematographer Stefanov, Porcelain War embodies the passion and fight that only an artist can put back into the world when it's crumbling around them.
Directed by Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
With Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, Andrey Stefanov
Rated R, 87 minutes, DCP
In English and Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles
Filmmakers Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, and Anya Stasenko scheduled to appear via Zoom