From
Philip Boverman
Not a day since Russia invaded Ukraine when these photos surfaced on February 24, 2022: Sean Penn wearing a military helmet. Sean Penn in a room that appears to be holding a press conference, a Ukrainian flag in a corner, the actor sitting there with his hair wildly tousled and sunglasses on his face, like in the proverbial wrong movie – that’s how most people in those days probably felt Western world: a nuclear power was at war in Europe, and Sean Penn was right in the middle of it without having planned it. He was filming a documentary there about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the invasion began. It was supposed to be a funny little story about a comedian who first plays the country’s president on Ukrainian television and then really becomes the president. It wasn’t a funny little story.