Montaigne told us that Spartan warriors, before going to battle, offered sacrifices to the muses and prayed that their actions would be described well and dignifiedly.
Jan Morris, Battleship Yamato: Of War, Beauty and Irony
Almost 3 years have passed since the Russian troops invaded Ukraine – 3 years of bombing hospitals, power stations, schools, parks, buses full of people, 3 years of deliberate killing of passersby drones. However, it seems that the public discourse in Germany has not far removed from the February 2022 discussion, in the media and politics, the voices of “proukrian” and “anti-war” proceed to change, as in the enchanted circle. Yet Germany has long been active in the Russian hybrid war against NATO, for which once again he drew attention historian Timothy Garton Ash. besides pre-election SPD program It sounds as if no change has occurred in Europe in fresh years: "Germany is firmly on the side of the attacked Ukraine – at the same time Chancellor Olaf Scholz is trying to guarantee that the war does not escalate to a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia".
The reason for this is possibly that the Russian war against Ukraine is seen alternatively abstractly and soldiers are inactive received in the service of an indeterminate “war machine”. The fact that in Ukraine all layers of democratic society defend themselves against an aggressor inactive seems hard to realize in Germany (and this after 3 years of war).
A late released American documentary entitled “China WarIt’s okay. ” It features Ukrainian artist Anna Stasenko, who specialized in painting multicolored and full details of scenes on tiny porcelain animal figurines created by her husband Slava Leontev. Since the outbreak of the war, the artist has utilized her creative skills for another purposes – in 1 of the scenes of the movie she paints colorful drawings of predatory birds. A fewer shots later you can see the same drone in action, during the bombing of a Russian tank that is on fire.
“The porcelain war” tells the communicative of the pair of Ukrainian artists mentioned Ania and Slava who directed the movie together with Bernand Bellomo, an American visual effects expert. The camera accompanies the couple and shows their lives from early 2022 to late 2023. They originally lived in Crimea, but after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, they were forced to flee and decision to Kharkiv, where they continued their artistic work, inspired by Ukrainian nature. They besides engaged in the fight in a applicable way: after 2014, Slava gained his education as a weapons instructor, serves in the peculiar unit “Sajgon” and trains Ukrainian soldiers in the usage of guns and device guns.
The author of most of the photos is their friend, artist Andry Stefanov, who besides escaped from Crimea with his wife and 2 daughters. Unlike Ania and Slavy Andrij, he is incapable to paint paintings during the war, but began filming. Its incredibly beautiful and at the same time sad shots, made from the position of the drone, give speech in the film. Scenes featuring Ania, Slava and their beloved terrier Frodo, erstwhile they stand in the golden, autumn light among meadows and forests in the vicinity of Kharkiv or in a shared apartment, which is at the same time an atelier, intertwined with the elaborately animated sequences in which porcelain figurines awaken to life. In subsequent shots, you can see Russian soldiers who search refuge from Ukrainian drones in trenches or completely destroyed Bachmut. Grey shots of the city were taken by Slava unit members – people who were teachers or doctors before the war – and made video recordings of their individual GoPro cameras available to the team. The “China War” shows not only the importance of art as a form of combat, but besides the captivating images of war captured by average citizens who have necessarily become soldiers. Slava explains in the off: “We are average people in an emergency.”
In addition to Ania, Slava, Andrija and members of the "Sajgon" there are many art artists who are putting themselves in mortal danger fighting for Ukraine. Since February 2022 145 Ukrainian artists have been killed, according to the latest statistic of the Ministry of Culture and strategical Communications in Ukraine. Russia killed the author of Volodymyr Wakulenka's children's books. She killed opera vocalist Ihor Voronka. She killed Mykola Lenoka, musician and performer of tracks on the oral harmonica at the chaotic Theater. Russia killed Alexander Serdiuk, a vocalist from the Berehynia Theatre in Kiev. Russia killed the poet Mirosław Herasymovich and Maxim Krywcow. Like Ania and Slava, Maxim besides created during the fighting and published in 2023 "Вірші з бійниці" [“Wies from trenches”].
My helmet fell out of my hands.
He fell into a puddle.
The cat woke up.
He blinked his eyes
He looked carefully:
Yes, these are my people:
And he fell asleep again.
All of these artists can be seen as representatives of a generation that Victoria Amelina – killed by a Russian rocket in 2023 – called "New Shot Rebirth". In Ukraine, the notion of "Розстріляне відродження" is defined by a generation of young and rising writers and artists who were abducted and murdered in the 1930s at the order of Joseph Stalin. Historian Francis Davis, recalls in her private newsletter"Amelina wrote that for her personally it means the death of most of her friends; for people in Western Europe it's just another unread text from Ukraine – a text that cannot be read due to the fact that the author was murdered by the Russians before he wrote it". Slava confirms that thought in the film. Walking through the destroyed building of the Academy of Arts in Kharkov, regrets works that will never arise due to the fact that artists had to run or fight – and die.
In interviews and comments in the movie Ania and Slava, they appear unmoved and convinced of their mission as artists and soldiers, but in the series of interviews with the operator Andrij you can besides see that he is very sensitive. In addition to his mission to finish the film, he fights primarily for endurance to see his household escape from Russian attacks on Lithuania. Welcome scenes during the return of the household in the summertime of 2023 are among the most moving in the film.
"China War" won the Grand Jury Award for documentary movie at the Sundance movie Festival 2024 and was nominated for this year's Academy Awards. It is simply a thrilling movie with terrible and beautiful images, enriched with music by Ukrainian group DachaBrach, whose music is referred to as “Etno-chaos”. The “China War” shows the necessity and aspects – possibly drastic and shocking – of democratic and military opposition for the viewer. Teachers, doctors and artists enjoy the death of another people. Unlike artists from another countries, Ukrainian artists know what awaits them under Russian business – they are murder, violence, torture, deportation and erasure of any traces of Ukrainian identity and self-determination. Slava states at the end of the film: "Ukraine is like porcelain – it can easy break, but it cannot be destroyed".
Unfortunately, at the time of the creation of this article “China War” does not yet have a European distribution and is shown only in selected cinemas. I hope that shortly as many people in Germany and Poland will see this movie and I would very much like to see a screening in the Chancellor's Office or the home of Willy Brandt. The "proceedle war", as expected, does not end in happy ending. But at least Ania, Slava, Andrij and the members of the Sajgon managed to last their missions, which were shown during filming, they proceed to fight – with a brush and a rifle. In a better world, 3 characters of the movie could make art and exhibit their works in galleries around the world. However, in the dreary times in which we live, there is something that gives hope: the ability to defy by Anna, Slava, Andrija and all another artists who fight for us in Ukraine.
