THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I’m beyond excited that I’ve now completed my first ever Oscar death race (that’s what I’ve seen it called on Reddit, so I’m going with it), and Porcelain War made for a strong finish to a whirlwind last month. It’s certainly hard to keep absorbing such tough, gut-wrenching stories like this and No Other Land (and a myriad of the short film nominees), but many have been well worth the watch, Porcelain War included. The film was confident in its storytelling early, mixing exposition, warfare, and porcelain art expertly, but that confidence waned as the film couldn’t quite stick to a direction or consistent tone.

This movie rivaled No Other Land in the quantity of war depictions, and the firsthand experiences and video succeeded at bringing the viewer into their world. Equally horrifying, though, was the reality that many of these “soldiers” suiting up for Ukraine have little to no military experience; they’re civilians! I wouldn’t be equipped to serve my country in this manner with my training as a teacher, so their dedication to the cause and even training each other (an artist teaching people how to shoot guns—who would’ve thought?) was very admirable.

There was a scarcely used but very effective family drama in the middle of this story, and I reveled in the love shared between Slava, Lena, Anya, and Sonya. Families like theirs deserve to be together in times like these, so even if that reunion was short-lived toward the end, I’m glad they got to see and hug each other and spend some quality time together. My favorite quality of this film, though—and this should come as a surprise to no one—was the animation on the porcelain figurines, not to mention just how pretty those little guys were. The few times they told stories on the figurines were really cool—very The Prince of Egypt hieroglyphics of them—and I wish they had embraced it a lot more.

Any analysis of the Russia-Ukraine conflict was mostly surface-level, with a few quotes that will stay with you near the end (“Ukraine is like porcelain, easy to break, but impossible to destroy” and “If tomorrow comes, it will depend on how well we tie our boots today”), but I still really enjoyed this rather quick documentary. While I think the Oscar tomorrow is No Other Land’s to lose, Porcelain War seems to be gaining some traction, and it’ll probably come down to which overseas conflict the Academy feels more comfortable voting for. We shall see.