American actor and director Sean Penn will premiere a documentary about the Russian invasion of Ukraine starring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Berlin Film Festival next month, organizers said on Monday.
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The 73rd Berlinale, taking place from February 16-26, this time puts the spotlight on the war in Ukraine, whose invasion by Russia began on February 24, 2022.
Dubbed “the chronicle of a project that forced reality into something less controllable but more meaningful,” Superpower will be the biggest of the Ukrainian films screened at the festival.
The documentary “Superpower” by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman will premiere at the Berlinale Special Gala 2023. What began as a portrait of President Zelenskyy became a tribute to the spirit of a people and a self-portrait of an artist serving a cause. Info: https://t.co/4fuwKgKmJK pic.twitter.com/UvaRyRI4M5
— Berlinale (@berlinale) January 23, 2023
Sean Penn was in Kyiv filming a documentary at the end of February 2022 when the Russian invasion began.
The two-time Oscar winner – for Harvey Milk and Mystic River – was photographed at a Ukrainian government press conference in Kyiv. We also saw him with Mr. Zelensky in a video posted on the Ukrainian President’s Instagram account.
Mr. Zelensky’s services had reiterated that the American artist displayed a courage “that many other politicians, particularly Western politicians, lack.”
Sean Penn directed the documentary for Vice Studios with American director Aaron Kaufman.
The 62-year-old has drawn controversy for his involvement in politics or current affairs in the past, including after his interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman while he was on the run.
The Berlinale, the first major film event of the year in Europe, will highlight several documentaries and feature films by Ukrainian directors as well as works by dissident Iranian filmmakers as a sign of “solidarity,” Italian co-director Carlo Chatrian told the festival.
It will also provide representatives of the Ukrainian film industry with free exhibition space during the festival’s extensive European Film Market and showcase co-production opportunities with struggling Ukrainian directors.
Opening of the festival, an American romantic comedy, She Came to Me, carried by one of the main characters of Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage, the American Marisa Tomei, who can be seen in several films of the Marvel Universe, as well as the French Tahar Rahim and American Anne Hathaway.
It will be directed by American actress, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart and is set to welcome Steven Spielberg as the guest of honor.
Among the French films in competition are Sur l’Adamant by Nicolas Philibert, documentary filmmaker for Being and Having, which this time delves into the world of psychiatry, and Le grand charriot by Philippe Garrel.