The winner of two Oscars has to reach Poland on foot from Ukraine, where he was filming a documentary about the Russian invasion
In Hollywood, Sean Penn has earned a well-deserved reputation as a committed actor, but this time, his activism has gone beyond the screen and into reality. The 61-year-old interpreter has left Ukraine, where he was shooting a documentary about the Russian invasion, and has walked to the Polish border, like hundreds of thousands of refugees. On his Twitter account, he explained that he and two filming partners abandoned the vehicle in which they were leaving the country on the road and had to walk the last kilometers of their flight. “Nearly all the cars in this photo carry only women and children, most without any visible sign of luggage and with a car as their only valuable possession,” Penn explained about an image in which he is seen from behind while he carries a backpack and a suitcase next to a huge line of vehicles. A spokeswoman in Los Angeles, Mara Buxbaum, told Reuters by email that Penn had “departed safely from Ukraine,” though she declined to answer other questions about his whereabouts or the circumstances of his departure from Ukraine.
The winner of two Oscars for best actor for the films ‘Mystic River’ and ‘Milk’ was recording a film about the situation in the country for the production company Vice Studios. In fact, on the first day of the invasion, Thursday, February 24, he attended the press conference offered by President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that tense moment, Zelensky said that Penn “is among those who support Ukraine.” “Our country is very grateful for your displays of courage and honesty,” the Ukrainian leader proclaimed. The actor also did not spare praise for the man who has become the symbol of resistance to Russia and assured that Zelensky and his country are “the spearhead of an embrace of the dreams of democracy.” “If we let them fight alone, our American soul will be lost,” Penn said.
In recent weeks, the interpreter had interviewed top-level Ukrainian politicians, soldiers and journalists, such as the country’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk. “The director specially came to Kiev to recount all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country. Sean Penn is showing a courage that many others, in particular some Western politicians, have lacked,” the Ukrainian Presidency Office said last week.
In his role as director, Penn has signed the film ‘I will say your name’ and the documentary ’11’09”01-September 11′, among others. As an activist, she was at the forefront of the humanitarian emergency after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. She was also the protagonist of a bizarre story when in 2015 she interviewed escaped drug trafficker Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán for the magazine ‘ Rolling Stone’.
#refugee #named #Sean #Penn