A photo with a trolley case against the light. Sean Penn documented his departure from Ukraine via Twitter. Past an endless traffic jam with refugees from all parts of the country. “Me and two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after leaving our car on the side of the road,” he wrote.
The hasty action became necessary after Penn returned to Kyiv last week for his documentary film on the Ukraine conflict. He was already filming in the country in autumn 2021, also in the contested Donbas region.
In many places he was admired for his courage to continue the project. Right in the middle of the war that was about to break out. He also received recognition from the Ukrainian government: “Our country is grateful to him for so much courage and honesty,” said the Office of the President.
Critical voices are now piling up. “This man is an adrenaline junkie! He’s rich and bored. He likes to sound the alarm. First El Chapo, then thick pants in the war!“, writes user War_West on the content portal reddit. “He probably sees himself as a modern Hemingway” suspects teanaway99 in the debate that has grown into its own thread.
Myself & two colleagues walked miles to the Polish border after abandoning our car on the side of the road. Almost all the cars in this photo carry women & children only, most without any sign of luggage, and a car their only possession of value. pic.twitter.com/XSwCDgYVSH
— Sean Penn (@SeanPenn) February 28, 2022
In fact, Sean Penn has to be left wondering if his publicity-laden return was actually a helpful move. Especially since many in Ukraine had assumed that he would continue his documentary under the increasingly extreme conditions. And thus set a quasi-heroic sign. At the end of last week he had condemned Putin for the invasion in a series of tweets. In it, he called on Washington to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty.
It is “not always ideal for a Hollywood actor to arrive in the middle of a humanitarian crisis,” as the American pop culture magazine Uproxx put it mildly. But at least the Ukrainian government would be grateful that Penn would take care of the events on the ground.
Now the fast roll backwards. What may be perfectly understandable personally has become a superficial show action in the political public eye. In view of the continuous bombing and hundreds of deaths, the staging of his “Escape from Kyiv” seems self-righteous and embarrassing. Like grist to the mill of Russian propaganda: when things get serious, the West gets out of the field. Even if it’s just an actor.