As we read in Variety, Sean Penn’s documentary about the conflict in Ukraine is finally seeing the light of day. The Berlin Film Festival announced today that Superpower, which was shot on-location and codirected by Penn and Aaron Kaufman, will premiere out-of-competition next month.
The film’s debut marks one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a period during which Penn visited the war-torn region and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, multiple times.
“Penn was in Kyiv shooting a film with Zelenskyy when the war in Ukraine burst,” Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian said in a press conference, according to Variety. “Reality made the film change into something less comfortable and more meaningful. We are very grateful to Sean Penn and the entire team to have picked the Berlinale to show this film.” Chatrian added that “showing this film in Berlin has a more relevant meaning that in any other place, because we are close to Ukraine, because Ukrainian people live in Berlin, and also because of the political value.”
According to Berlinale Press Release, “More than a documentary, SUPERPOWER is the chronicle of a film project that reality forced to change in to something less controllable but more meaningful. In a festival that will take place one year after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, it is important to show the film that Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman made under such difficult conditions. Like their colleagues who risked their lives in order to testify the cruelty of the war, they prove once more that art can inspire action worldwide”.
Superpower
by Sean Penn, Aaron Kaufman
USA 2022
World premiere | Documentary Form
Read more about this Berlinale screening HERE and HERE.
Berlinale Special Gala: SUPERPOWER
