Sean Penn continues to engage in the war in Ukraine. After making a documentary on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, presented in February at the Berlinale, the American star will play in a Ukrainian film. He will close the film War through the eyes of animals by the SOTA Cinéma group. This work presents the adventures of nine animals involved in the war in Ukraine. "All these stories are based on real events," says Oleg Kokhan, who made the film.
Actor Sean Penn will star in the last of these stories, the one that will close the film anthology. He will play a sound engineer, witness in spite of himself of the beginning of the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022. A role that suits perfectly the actor, who was in the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky when he learned of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, director of The Tribe (2014), will be at the helm of this latest short film.
"One of Ukraine's greatest friends"
"I'm absolutely thrilled to be a part of this film. It is a great honor for me to collaborate with Sean Penn, an incredible actor, an exceptional person and one of Ukraine's greatest friends," he said in a statement. "It is crucial to us that artists of Sean Penn's calibre not only recognize the terrifying reality we describe, but also bring their voices," Kokhan said.
Sean Penn has visited Ukraine several times since the Russian invasion began last February. The commitment of the American actor provoked the ire of Moscow which banned him permanently from Russia, while the star went so far as to declare in April 2022 that he planned to "take up arms against Russia".
- War in Ukraine
- World
- Sean Penn
- Cinema
- Volodymyr Zelensky