Evgeny Afineevsky’s Ash and Crayons puts seven Ukrainian children at the center of a story about what remains after war has taken so much away.
The documentary, from the Russian-born, Israeli-American filmmaker whose Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom earned an Academy Award nomination, follows children living with devastating injuries, loss and forced displacement, while showing the determination with which they continue to dream, create and move forward. Briarcliff Entertainment will release the film in U.S. theaters on November 20, 2026, deliberately aligning its arrival with the United Nations’ World Children’s Day.
What makes the film particularly notable is that Afineevsky does not treat these children simply as witnesses to tragedy. Their lives become the heart of the documentary. The film captures them rebuilding pieces of childhood through sport, music, friendship and ambition, even after experiences that could have defined their lives only through loss. The trailer gives that resilience a deeply personal face, making the film feel less like a distant account of war and more like an intimate record of a generation refusing to let violence decide its future.
The project began under the working title Children in the Fire before becoming Ash and Crayons. The final title came from the children themselves and their simple, powerful thought: “Even broken crayons can still color.” It is a fitting idea for a film concerned with children whose lives have been broken by circumstances beyond their control, yet who continue finding ways to make something meaningful from what remains.
Afineevsky also gives the documentary an unusual visual language. Alongside real-life vérité footage and interviews, Ash and Crayons uses 3D animation stylized as 2D, created by Ukrainian artists. The approach allows the filmmakers to portray painful memories and experiences in a way that remains visually expressive without placing the children directly inside every difficult moment. More than 100 Ukrainian artists and industry professionals contributed to the production, with much of the work carried out inside Ukraine.
The film has already travelled far beyond the traditional documentary circuit. Before its U.S. theatrical release, Ash and Crayons was screened at the Vatican, the U.S. Congress, the UK Parliament, the Italian Parliament and the Council of Europe. It also received the Cinema for Peace Award in Berlin, with Afineevsky accepting the honor directly from Hillary Clinton.
Behind these seven stories is a much larger crisis. The filmmakers say more than 20,610 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported or transferred to Russia since the war began. The film’s impact campaign works with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, War Child International and the Ukrainian World Congress, extending its purpose beyond cinemas and into advocacy.
The trailer makes that contrast clear: children confront the consequences of war while still returning to the things that make them feel like children. A child running, performing, competing or imagining a future becomes its own form of resistance.
The November 20 release adds another layer. World Children’s Day connects the film to the rights and welfare of children worldwide, giving its theatrical arrival an additional sense of purpose.
For audiences, Ash and Crayons promises a difficult record, but also a hopeful one. Its title carries the film’s central thought: being broken does not mean losing the ability to create, dream or bring color back into life.