BERLIN, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Late within the night of Feb. 24, 2022, just a few 15 hours after Russia triggered its invasion of his nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discovered time to obtain American actor Sean Penn.
Sitting in a naked, apparently windowless room, Zelenskiy speculates on Vladimir Putin’s motives for the invasion within the central scene of “Superpower”, Penn’s feature-length profile of the president that premiered on the Berlin Movie Competition on Friday.
“He desires us to be useless,” Zelenskiy says within the movie. “He hates Ukraine. He hates us.”
In that second, Penn stated, he noticed Zelenskiy’s transformation into the person of the hour. “He was born for that second,” he advised a information convention on Saturday.
Practically one yr into the invasion, Putin’s troops are nonetheless in Ukraine, intensifying assaults within the east in what Moscow calls a “particular army operation” that has killed hundreds and led thousands and thousands to flee.
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Directed by Penn and Aaron Kaufman, Penn’s film opens within the months earlier than the invasion, with Penn intrigued by a fellow actor’s transition from the movie set to presidential workplace. The invasion dramatically raises the stakes, turning the filmmakers into passionate advocates for Ukraine.
“He began out as a fascination,” Kaufman stated. “He was a David and Goliath character, however like David in that story he has turned out to be rather more nimble – extra nimble than the older Goliath Putin has develop into.”
Produced by Vice and shot within the close-in, handheld, net documentary model popularised by the media group, the movie charts a chain-smoking, vodka-tonic-sinking Penn’s efforts to grasp Ukraine, its president, and its struggle.
Penn and Kaufman advocate within the movie for the USA to arm Ukraine, and in doing so make it clear that Zelenskiy’s choice to obtain them on the primary day was a deft transfer in Ukraine’s info struggle.
“If we do not win at present, then People will likely be preventing wars in some years’ time,” Zelenskiy tells Penn in a later interview, warning {that a} Ukrainian loss would have penalties additional afield.
In flip, Penn hailed Ukraine as an inspiration. “Ukraine is the world’s Beatles,” he advised reporters.
“This isn’t an unbiased movie. This isn’t an ambiguous struggle,” Penn stated when requested if he had wished to shoot a movie exploring a Russian perspective. “Putin has stated far an excessive amount of already.”
The digicam brings the viewer uncomfortably near the loss of life and gore left by retreating Russian troopers, however it’s sincere in regards to the limits of what a Hollywood movie star will undergo.
“Can I be blunt?” one minder is heard saying. “You are Sean Penn. No person goes to be liable for you dying on the entrance line.”
Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Enhancing by Rosalba O’Brien and Clelia Oziel
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