Berlin Review: Sean Penn’s Ukraine Documentary ‘Superpower’ Gets Up Close With Super Inspiring Wartime Leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy

deadline.com:

Roughly three quarters of the way into Superpower, the documentary about the war in Ukraine directed by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman, the Oscar-winning actor displays a fixed-blade knife while traveling by car through the embattled country.

He jokes to the camera, “All of Ukraine should feel safe now that I’m armed.” He adds, holding up fists clenched like a boxer’s, “Plus, I’ve got these.” It’s a rare moment of levity in a film that otherwise unfolds with deadly seriousness, for appropriate reasons: for almost a year now Ukraine has been fighting for its survival against a ruthless and unprovoked invasion launched by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The acquisition title held its world premiere tonight at the 73rdBerlin Film Festival. It serves a vital function, explaining the stakes of a war that some Americans may dismiss as something happening “over there” (just as many Americans did in the early days of World Wars I and II).

Penn, as the audience’s guide, brings essential moral clarity to the violent conflict, insisting that we must find “common cause” with Ukraine’s struggle for democratic freedoms and independence from a totalitarian aggressor. “Ukraine is representing the greatest aspirations that we should all share,” Penn says, warning, “There’s no way it doesn’t come to everyone’s doorstep,” meaning those of us living in Western democracies. “It doesn’t matter if Ukraine is a NATO country or not.” As is often the case with documentaries, the project initially began with a very different aim – to profile Ukraine’s recently elected leader, the former actor, comedian and political neophyte Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had been dragged into America’s domestic politics in 2019 when then-President Trump pressured him