INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Film Festival, is proof that even with the best luck and access imaginable, an extraordinary journalistic opportunity can easily be
extraordinary footage of Kyiv in the first days of the invasion and several compelling one-on-one conversations with Zelensky, what follows
shake off the weight of having Penn at its helm, whose brooding presence dominates throughout but contributes little aside from the access
to power his celebrity profile affords.Less a documentary about Zelensky than a bromance movie starring Penn as the Ukrainian president's
to volatile displays of emotion that blur the line between journalism and activism
As the title suggests, Penn is far from ambiguous in his views on Zelenksy, and his fawning in his presence often borders on the
embarrassing.Arguably too smitten with Zelensky the myth to attempt painting an objective portrait of Zelensky the man, Penn overlooks the
well-positioned to offer insights into the transition from acting to politics
strung out and on the edge of a breakdown as the film drags on, Penn drinks and smokes incessantly, even when interviewing high-ranking
invasion and calmly discusses the events unfolding in real time around them
It's a journalistic coup that even Penn's breathy remarks about how inspired he is by Zelensky's leadership can't totally
Afterwards, Penn casually announces he intends to travel to the front line and proceeds to undertake a perilous journey to the eastern
the trenches, with Russian forces just a couple of hundred meters away and the constant rumble of artillery in the background
While it's questionable whether taking such a risk was necessary or if the opinions Penn hears in the trenches differ significantly from
Walking through the rubble of a Kyiv kindergarten destroyed by a Russian missile, he reflects how incredible it is to think that all the
devastation around him is due to the will of just one man
He sounds genuinely bewildered as he says it
