Sean Penn's film about war in Ukraine premieres at Berlinale

Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman's "Superpower," a documentary film about the war in Ukraine, premiered at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 18.

The organizers of this year's festival expressed their continued solidary with the people of Ukraine, as well as protestors in Iran, in January 2023.

"The Berlinale stands in 2023 even more firmly for these democratic values, and remembers victims of war, destruction and oppression all over the world," the organizers said in a statement.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, thanked Penn and Kaufman for their film in a Telegram post.

According to Yermak, the film "tells the story of the war for independence, the Russian invasion, which Sean Penn himself met in Kyiv and saw with his own eyes the first day of the start of a full-scale war."

During the press conference after the premiere of the film, Sean Penn said that the U.S. had to accept "a level of shame" for not supplying Ukraine with defense aid sooner.

“If you imagine what it is if Russia wins, we are all fucked. Just dead fucked,” Penn said, adding that helping Ukraine to win the war was the best way to avoid escalation.