Zelensky

synopsis

Ten years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky was just one of the many faces on Ukrainian television screens. He became a star thanks to the 2015 satirical series Servant of the People, in which he played a history teacher who becomes president. Four years later, what began as fiction became a reality. This French documentary follows the transformation of a popular TV comedian into a statesman on the front lines of the Russian invasion. Archival footage, family photos, television appearances, and interviews with Zelensky and those closest to him create a multi-layered portrait of a man who always longed for a large audience. At the same time, the film places his personal development in the broader context of post-Soviet Ukraine, which is also searching for its own identity.

“It is the portrait of a man who becomes president and leader of a country at war, even though nothing in his life had prepared him for it. It is the portrait of a man, but also, implicitly, of his generation and of a country—Ukraine.” — Lisa Vapné

biography

Yves Jeuland (born 1968) is a French documentary filmmaker and author of numerous television films about politics and prominent public figures. Ariane Chemin (born 1963) is a journalist who has been writing for the daily newspaper Le Monde since 2011. Lisa Vapné works as a historian specializing in the history of Eastern Europe.

film details

director:	Yves Jeuland, Lisa Vapné
producer:	Guilaine Chenu
script:	Yves Jeuland, Ariane Chemin, Lisa Vapné
photography:	Thibault Delavigne
editing:	Yves Deleumandre
music:	Eric Slabiak
sound design:	Bruno Lagoarde