Chaos and turmoil dominate the first images of “Superpower.” TV presenters talk over each other, people run through the corridors, the camera can barely stick to their backs. It is February 24, 2022, the beginning of the war, Russia attacks Ukraine. The sky shines menacingly on the horizon and the impacts can be heard in the distance. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman are in the middle. Their joint film “Superpower” is a contemporary document of global upheaval. Everything was planned completely differently.
The “superpower” first has to find a framework for a project that has been shot down by current political events. Originally, a film about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj was going to be shot in 2021. A comedian, actor and star who rises to become a politician and head of state: that's material for the big screen. Penn and Kaufman bring together Selenskyj's strange past appearances in TV shows, series, and movies. It's about the interweaving of fiction and reality: politics as entertainment. Penn and Kaufman also know this from the United States. But with the start of the war, both Zelenskyjs now find themselves in completely different circumstances.
Directors: Aaron Kaufman, Sean Penn
Writer: Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Stars: Sean Penn, Volodymyr Zelenskyy
It's definitely a credit to this two-hour documentary how hard it initially tries to put order into its material. Of course, the historic process of reconciliation with recent years in Ukraine can only happen in fast motion. Enough with the individual highlights: they touch on the annexation of Crimea, Zelensky's election campaign or the Ukraine issue surrounding Donald Trump. But at least! “Superpower” is careful to show connections and contexts and not simply understand the war as a sudden onset.
But he loses his cool too quickly and world events seem too confusing. You can see this clearly in the drawn body of Sean Penn, who is set to star in the film. He is repeatedly seen smoking, drinking, thinking and listening: tense looks, exhausted expression. You can imagine how it sounds and works in the brain. He wants to report from Ukraine as a representative for all those who have no idea. Experience it up close instead of simply following the news from afar. But was the trip to the crisis zone really worth it?
Sean Penn gets expert opinions as a war tourist. In between, he forces himself to put on a military uniform or puts himself in bunkers. What stands out in this very superficial film are the heroic images of the star investigator. Meanwhile, the conversations Penn has with Selenskyj couldn't be more insubstantial to the audience. In any case, only parts of them are seen. Penn is still someone who can wonder about everything on his own. Again and again he talks to the camera about how inspiring this meeting with Ukrainians was for him, whether with euphoria or deeply moved with tears in his eyes.
That's all well and good, but “Superpower” doesn't take a differentiated look at his own mediality and observer position at all. It brings together images and videos from television and the Internet in found footage style to create a dazzling, overwhelming effect. Hardly a scene can do without dramatic and moving musical accompaniment. Everything constantly tends towards tension, effect and great emotion. War as a media attraction. A Hollywood star who puts herself in danger due to the investigation. "Superpower" remains, above all, one thing: sensational.
In short, this is not a work like “Mariupolis” or “Mariupolis 2” by the murdered director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who actually managed to give an original, calm and unadorned look at everyday life during the war in Ukraine. The “superpower” never manages to change his naive perspective or convey an impression of war that reveals his misery beyond patriotism and heroism.
Instead, he simply repeats what is familiar, reproducing prevailing myths that are ubiquitous anyway: the Ukrainian population as a large unit in which everyone seems willing to suffer a sacrificial death. This movie doesn't go any further. It underlines how young people are trained for war with joyful sounds, as if it were a child's game.
Zelensky says in this interview that the United States will have to fight against itself if Ukraine loses. With this threat, Sean Penn returns home. The tourist and activist praises the foreign nation he found as if it were a place of longing. Social unity as a role model for the United States. As if there is something attractive in the emergency and defense situation of Ukraine! This is an illusion, a Hollywood spectacle that does not do justice to the horror of the conflict situation.
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