Sean Penn premieres love letter to Ukraine at Berlin fest

By AFP

Sean Penn premiered “Superpower”, his admiring portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at struggle, telling the Berlin movie competition Saturday the film was additionally a wakeup name about Americans’ personal fragile democracy.

The two-time Oscar winner was in Kyiv making a documentary about Zelensky’s rise from comic to nationwide chief when Russia invaded almost one 12 months in the past.

In a collection of interviews on that first terrifying evening and through the preliminary months of the onslaught, Penn and Zelensky constructed up what they each name an in depth friendship.

“It was a very moving way to start to get to know somebody,” Penn informed reporters.

“Aside from meeting my children at their birth, the highlight of (my life was) meeting and sensing a great human heart of courage that day with that man.”

 ‘Propagandist’ 

Zelensky joined Penn by video hyperlink on the competition’s opening ceremony Thursday to ask for the leisure business’s sustained assist in protecting Western international locations united behind Ukraine.

“Cinema cannot change the world,” stated Zelensky. “But it can influence and inspire people who can change the world.”

The educated actor stresses within the movie that the extra shortly the struggle is ended, the much less probably “Americans will have to fight” sooner or later in a Russian struggle in opposition to NATO.

Penn, who seems in nearly each scene of the two-hour film made for Vice Media, stated he was okay with being referred to as a “propagandist”.

“We made a very unapologetically biased film because that was the true story we found,” he stated.

Often self-deprecating on display, the actor admits he was a naive “Pollyanna” earlier than the struggle, by no means believing that Russia’s Vladimir Putin would undergo with a full-scale invasion.

As he heads to the entrance line within the Donbas area, he jokes when he’s handed a knife that the Ukrainian individuals can now relaxation simple as a result of “Sean Penn is armed”, earlier than brandishing two clenched fists on the digital camera.

In addition to Zelensky, Penn speaks with diplomats, reporters and analysts in addition to Ukrainian troopers and pro-democracy activists to supply an “idiot’s guide” to the final decade of Ukrainian historical past.

 ‘Vital and useless’ 

The movie’s title comes from a scene in Zelensky’s hit comedy present “Servant of the People” by which he tells his younger son that he’ll defend him from any menace utilizing his “superpower” — his love for his household.

But additionally it is an ironic reference to the United States and Russia. Penn argues that Ukraine may very well be now seen as “the better us” — a brand new world beacon for freedom and democracy.

“Growing up in the United States — this won’t be news to you — we are born with a misguided sense of exceptionalism,” Penn stated.

He stated that whereas America was now riven with political and cultural strife, he present in Ukraine “absolute unity pursuing all those things that without which life is not worth living”.

“These people are doing what they have to do simply because they love their country and they love each other,” he stated.

“So the lesson is simple and we should we should all honour them by doing our best to follow it.”

He referred to as for the West to step up its army assist for Ukraine.

“The most significant humanitarian response that can happen right now is the delivery and supply of long-range precision missiles,” Penn stated.

Initial evaluations of the movie had been combined, with The Hollywood Reporter calling the mission “both vital and vain”.

“It would be easy to write the whole thing off as one big and slightly dangerous vanity project, but let’s be honest: This war concerns all of us, and the actor is doing all he can to help the good guys,” its reviewer Jordan Mintzer wrote.

“Superpower” is working out of competitors on the Berlin movie competition, Europe’s first main cinema showcase of the 12 months. The 11-day occasion is spotlighting Ukraine with a collection of latest documentaries and have movies.

Sean Penn premiered “Superpower”, his admiring portrait of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at struggle, telling the Berlin movie competition Saturday the film was additionally a wakeup name about Americans’ personal fragile democracy.

The two-time Oscar winner was in Kyiv making a documentary about Zelensky’s rise from comic to nationwide chief when Russia invaded almost one 12 months in the past.

In a collection of interviews on that first terrifying evening and through the preliminary months of the onslaught, Penn and Zelensky constructed up what they each name an in depth friendship.

“It was a very moving way to start to get to know somebody,” Penn informed reporters.

“Aside from meeting my children at their birth, the highlight of (my life was) meeting and sensing a great human heart of courage that day with that man.”

 ‘Propagandist’ 

Zelensky joined Penn by video hyperlink on the competition’s opening ceremony Thursday to ask for the leisure business’s sustained assist in protecting Western international locations united behind Ukraine.

“Cinema cannot change the world,” stated Zelensky. “But it can influence and inspire people who can change the world.”

The educated actor stresses within the movie that the extra shortly the struggle is ended, the much less probably “Americans will have to fight” sooner or later in a Russian struggle in opposition to NATO.

Penn, who seems in nearly each scene of the two-hour film made for Vice Media, stated he was okay with being referred to as a “propagandist”.

“We made a very unapologetically biased film because that was the true story we found,” he stated.

Often self-deprecating on display, the actor admits he was a naive “Pollyanna” earlier than the struggle, by no means believing that Russia’s Vladimir Putin would undergo with a full-scale invasion.

As he heads to the entrance line within the Donbas area, he jokes when he’s handed a knife that the Ukrainian individuals can now relaxation simple as a result of “Sean Penn is armed”, earlier than brandishing two clenched fists on the digital camera.

In addition to Zelensky, Penn speaks with diplomats, reporters and analysts in addition to Ukrainian troopers and pro-democracy activists to supply an “idiot’s guide” to the final decade of Ukrainian historical past.

 ‘Vital and useless’ 

The movie’s title comes from a scene in Zelensky’s hit comedy present “Servant of the People” by which he tells his younger son that he’ll defend him from any menace utilizing his “superpower” — his love for his household.

But additionally it is an ironic reference to the United States and Russia. Penn argues that Ukraine may very well be now seen as “the better us” — a brand new world beacon for freedom and democracy.

“Growing up in the United States — this won’t be news to you — we are born with a misguided sense of exceptionalism,” Penn stated.

He stated that whereas America was now riven with political and cultural strife, he present in Ukraine “absolute unity pursuing all those things that without which life is not worth living”.

“These people are doing what they have to do simply because they love their country and they love each other,” he stated.

“So the lesson is simple and we should we should all honour them by doing our best to follow it.”

He referred to as for the West to step up its army assist for Ukraine.

“The most significant humanitarian response that can happen right now is the delivery and supply of long-range precision missiles,” Penn stated.

Initial evaluations of the movie had been combined, with The Hollywood Reporter calling the mission “both vital and vain”.

“It would be easy to write the whole thing off as one big and slightly dangerous vanity project, but let’s be honest: This war concerns all of us, and the actor is doing all he can to help the good guys,” its reviewer Jordan Mintzer wrote.

“Superpower” is working out of competitors on the Berlin movie competition, Europe’s first main cinema showcase of the 12 months. The 11-day occasion is spotlighting Ukraine with a collection of latest documentaries and have movies.