The Producers

Adrian Pennink – Director

Adrian Pennink is an award-winning director who has directed more than 50 broadcast documentaries about art, history, science and politics for the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery, PBS, NatGeo, NHK and others.  He has twice been nominated for Grierson Awards and twice for Emmys, winning the Best Documentary International Emmy for The Ascent of Money, a share of the BAFTA for Best Factual Series for Horizon and an RTS Best Documentary as well as many other awards.  Adrian also directed a feature documentary on Henry Kissinger for Channel 4 and
NatGeo.

Harry Stourton – Producer

Harry Stourton is a freelance producer, writer and journalist, writing for The Times, The Independent and Money Week. He develops and produces independent feature films and has worked for Paramount Pictures, Simon West Films and Warren Littlefield. He spent several weeks as a volunteer serving pizza in Eastern Ukraine, where he developed this project.

Melanie Fall – Exec Producer
Melanie Fall is an Emmy-winning, highly experienced Series and Exec producer who has worked with the UK’s top independent companies. She has worked on some of the BBC’s most ambitious landmark arts series, notably the highly acclaimed reimagining of Civilisations for BBC and PBS and the BBC’s Art that Made Us. She has also produced a three-part drama doc on the life and works of Amadeus Mozart for the BBC, working with 72 Films.

Making The Film

Director's Statement
There have been many documentaries about the Ukraine war, but I wanted this to be a different view. I’ve directed more than 50 broadcast documentaries (winning a Best Documentary Emmy and many other awards), but this is the first film I have photographed because I wanted the people I talked to look down the lens and make this a very intimate film: to capture a more human view of the psychological stress of visiting and living in these forgotten villages surrounded by war which have been abandoned by their own government, other aid agencies, and that are hardly ever visited by journalists or filmmakers.
— Adrian Pennink, Director, Pizza Under Fire