Berlin: On 1-Year Anniversary Of Russian Invasion ‘Superpower’ Directors Sean Penn, Aaron Kaufman Talk Ukraine, Pres. Zelenskyy’s Courage And If We’re Already Fighting WW III
24.02.2023 - 15:55
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: On February 24, 2022 Sean Penn and his documentary filmmaking team got up before dawn in Kyiv in anticipation of a planned interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Suddenly, explosions shattered the quiet and missile fire turned the darkened sky to malevolent orange. Russia’s full-scale attack on its neighbor had begun — what President Vladimir Putin later that day euphemistically dubbed a “special military operation.”
Experts widely predicted Kyiv would fall within days and Zelenskyy would perish or flee his country (he was offered passage out by the Biden administration). Neither happened. On the one-year anniversary of the invasion, Penn and Aaron Kaufman, directors of the documentary Superpower, are reflecting on Ukraine’s response to a war of annihilation and Pres. Zelenskyy’s stunning leadership.
“Well, obviously, I share the broad view that his is a historic profile in courage,” Penn tells Deadline regarding Zelenskyy, “and I’m always mindful, as he would be, to parallel that with…that he is a leader who has coalesced an entire country of heroes. And he was the glue in ways that normally with presidents fleeing their own country for their own safety, he’s there to lead for freedom.”
“We had a front row seat to see President Zelenskyy embrace the challenge of the Russian invasion,” Kaufman notes. “Zelenskyy has displayed a combination of strategic thinking, effective communication, and decisive action while facing an existential threat.”
Superpower held its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival last week. At a packed Berlinale press conference, Penn revealed he had spent the previous week in Kyiv and had screened the film for Zelenskyy. The documentary makes the urgent point that
The website celebfans.org is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can
send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.