Film star Sean Penn appears in Ukrainian film for $1
US actor and director Sean Penn has appeared in the Ukrainian film War Through the Eyes of Animals for a fee of just one dollar.
Source: Ukrainian producer Oleh Kokhan in an interview with Suspilne Kultura
Details: Kokhan said that Penn cannot work for free under the rules of the US Screen Actors Guild, so the actor had said that his fee would be one dollar.
Quote: "Working for one dollar on a Ukrainian film is also a way of supporting Ukraine. For me this decision has confirmed that he is a very strong ambassador, and that our cinema and its themes resonate with an international audience."
More details: The anthology film War Through the Eyes of Animals consists of seven novellas, each directed by a different director. The stories tell real-life accounts of animals being rescued during the war. Sean Penn plays a sound producer who accidentally becomes a witness to the outbreak of the full-scale invasion. The novella is called The Eagle and is directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi.
The world premiere of the film has taken place at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The nationwide premiere took place at the Odesa Film Festival on 4 October, to coincide with World Animal Day.
News that Sean Penn would appear in a Ukrainian film first emerged in late May 2023.
The American actor has visited Ukraine repeatedly since the start of the full-scale invasion. He also made a film about Ukraine, Superpower.
The documentary tells the story of Sean Penn travelling to Ukraine to learn more about Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the comedian turned president. It was supposed to be an entertaining film, but it turned into a historical document.
Work on the film began before Russia's full-scale invasion, in early 2021. At that time, Penn even visited the Ukrainian military in Donbas. In February 2022, when the Russians launched their major offensive, Penn was in Ukraine.
The film premiered at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival.
In November 2022, Penn gave Zelenskyy an Oscar statuette as a "symbolic trinket" and asked him to return it after Ukraine's victory.
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