![Sean Penn’s Co-Directed Documentary About The Ukraine War Is A Silly & Superficial [Berlin]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/18130535/Superpower.jpg "Sean Penn’s Co-Directed Documentary About The Ukraine War Is A Silly & Superficial [Berlin]")
There is a selected type of audacity reserved for the rich and the well-meaning. Multi-award-winning actor and humanitarian Sean Penn co-directs “Superpower” with Aaron Kaufman, recognized principally for his business work and his collaboration with writer-director Robert Rodriguez. Presented as a Special Gala at this yr’s Berlin International Film Festival, the result’s an outrageously self-aggrandizing, pathetically light-weight documentary.
Penn pulls double-duty as a presenter for the documentary, beginning off acknowledging his personal ignorance about something to do with Ukrainian historical past till the Maidan Revolution of 2014 made international headlines. The documentary venture began off as a portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky, involved in his journey from an leisure star in Ukraine and Russia to a fictional president within the satirical TV sequence “Servant of the People” to the precise President of Ukraine, receiving 73% of the votes in a basic election. As a politically engaged actor himself, it doesn’t take numerous psychological gymnastics to grasp how Zelensky would pique Penn’s curiosity. But he’s considerably, and clearly, out of his depth when the venture shifts its ambition to understanding the Russo-Ukrainian disaster.
“Superpower” makes an attempt to provide viewers a crash course in post-Soviet geopolitics and to summarise the character and sentiment of Ukrainian individuals within the lead-up to the Russian invasion of 2022 by means of a patchwork of Vox pops, interviews with Ukrainian and worldwide pundits, and numerous footage of Penn nodding emphatically. He, too, is getting the crash course right here.
There is a chilling prescience to seeing political pundits — and Sean Penn — sitting round a restaurant desk, ingesting wine and vodka, and placing percentages of the chance of a full-on battle taking place, of town of Kiev being set on literal hearth mere days earlier than it really occurs. Alongside the interviews and Penn’s dorky, oafish soliloquies about “extreme history” and “interdependence that allows for independence,” “Superpower” attracts from a wealth of footage of the Maidan revolution, the War in Donbas, and the continuing assaults on Ukraine. Hiding amongst the superficial shambles of all of it is a few actually harrowing footage: photos of decimated residential buildings and faculties, footage of individuals being shot with stay ammunition at a protest, and charred and bloodied our bodies of kids, ladies, and males.
Penn is at his most relaxed when he’s conversing with common folks. “Superpower” lets them specific their anger, their frustration, and their dedication with out interruption. A lady reveals Penn round her lounge, which has had one of many partitions blown off. A widow talks in regards to the lack of her husband within the Maidan protests. A younger man declares he’s by no means leaving Kiev, even when his home or his automobile will get bombed.
When the primary bombs drop on Kiev, the filmmaking crew decides to remain in Ukraine, comfortable of their resort, till they will get out safely overseas. But, not till Penn and Zelensky handle to satisfy. About an hour into the movie, Penn’s huge assembly with President Zelensky is a glorified meet-and-greet. Needless to say, the Ukrainian President has different issues on his thoughts aside from assembly Hollywood film stars who wish to fawn over what an inspiration he’s. During the remainder of “Superpower,” Penn and Zelensky meet one other two occasions. Once over Zoom, with Penn commenting that the politician seems to be like “he hasn’t slept since we saw him,” and one final time in particular person, months into the battle. It is crucial, the producer tells the digicam, that “Sean and Zelensky get together.” For what objective, precisely? Penn spends most of their assembly time talking at Zelensky, fawningly declaring his admiration for his braveness. At the identical time, Zelensky asks for worldwide allies to produce them with weapons as if he had reached some grand realization on his Eat Pray War journey to Ukraine.
Penn’s admiration for Zelensky, the individuals of Ukraine, and their unified dedication to democracy is honest, however “Superpower” is so silly a movie it’s galling to look at. [D]