I don’t know how pike soup pulls. But in front of the Verti Music Hall there is definitely more attraction. Welcome to the away game of the Berlinale: On the square in front of the Mercedes-Benz Arena, which is illuminated by neon advertising columns and freed of soul, a few scattered ice hockey fans are sipping a beer while cinema lovers are dragging their too-thin glittering robes through the storm. They scurry into a faceless music hall in which a makeshift grandstand and hundreds of folding chairs in front of a carelessly hung screen are waiting for something special. This is where an internationally acclaimed world premiere begins. Berlin has solemnly dressed up.
They just give me a wing and ask me why don’t you fly?
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on arms aid for his country
It’s a Berlinale coup. “Superpower”, the film by Oscar winner Sean Penn about the outbreak of the Ukraine war, crowned by an interview by Penn with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a bunker room in Kiev on the day of the Russian invasion a year ago – for a political film festival that’s it a heroic story.
Sean Penn apparently drinks alcohol often
Selenskyj, himself an actor before he became President, was already in the Berlinale opening gala from Kiev and vividly recalled the film “Himmel über Berlin”, which anticipated unity in freedom. “Now we fight for the freedom of the world. And we will win.” Standing ovation. Now the world premiere. There is a draft in the hall too.
Sean Penn apparently drinks alcohol often. Sean Penn has an encyclopedia on his bookshelf at home. Sean Penn says Ukraine is fighting for everything that people in America and Europe have taken for granted. Sean Penn smokes all the time. Sean Penn talks to Selenskyj several times, who knows how important international publicity is to prevent his country from being slaughtered. Sean Penn sits in cars. Sean Penn is thinking about Sean Penn. Shot in the midst of dramatic events, this film is important. But he stretches quite a bit.
“Superpower” could have been a focus of this year’s Berlinale. But the film itself lacks a center. Is it the people at war who stand in their flat that has just been bombed and say with sarcastic courage to survive: “Unfortunately, I can’t offer any tea”? Is it the clearly exposed war crimes of Vladimir Putin’s army that show who the world is really dealing with here? Or is it Selenskyj, who has had to beg Germany in particular for the necessary weapons for defense for a year now and who impressively says in the film: “If I am to fly, I need two wings. They just give me a wing and ask me: why don’t you fly?
The Berlinale, which no longer has enough cinema seats on the drafty Potsdamer Platz, lacks a center. The center of the free world has been different for a year anyway: Kiev.
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