Superpower

When directors Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman began filming Superpower in early 2021, a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin was a looming, if seemingly distant, threat. Penn and Kaufman travelled to Ukraine to learn more about Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor and comedian who played an unlikely presidential candidate on television before becoming the actual President of Ukraine, and who at that point was known primarily to Americans for rebuffing attempts at coercion in the 2019 Trump-Ukraine scandal that resulted in the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of President Donald Trump. But on February 24, 2022, while Penn and Kaufman were filming in Kyiv, Putin’s invasion took the world by storm. As explosions rocked the city, they became inadvertent front-row witnesses to this historic “David and Goliath” struggle. Penn conducted the first of multiple interviews with Zelensky on the night of the invasion and, deeply affected by what he witnessed in Kyiv and during the film team’s journey to the border, became an unofficial ambassador for Ukraine and its unlikely leader. (Berlinale)