Sean Penn said the US should accept a “level of shame” for not helping Ukraine with weapons sooner, speaking at the premiere of his documentary about President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Guardian and Reuters reported.

Speaking after Friday night’s screening, Penn said he believes the West cannot afford to lose the war in Ukraine to Kiev, an argument that underlies the new film Superpower.

“If you can imagine what it means, if Russia wins, we’re all f..ti. We’re devastated,” Penn said. “As Americans, I can tell you, we have to take a certain level of shame” because it wasn’t the US that didn’t send the weapons earlier.

Penn’s film Superpower tells the story of the first year of the war and includes an interview with President Zelensky on the first day of the Russian invasion.

Late in the evening of February 24, 2022, only 15 hours after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found time to congratulate American actor Sean Penn.

Sitting in an empty, seemingly windowless room, Zelensky ponders Vladimir Putin’s motivations for the invasion in “Superpower,” Penn’s feature film about the Ukrainian president, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday.

“He wants us dead,” Zelensky says in the film. “He hates Ukraine. He hates us.”

At that moment, Penn said, he saw Zelensky’s transformation into a man of the moment. “He was born for that moment,” he said at a news conference on Saturday.

Nearly a year after the invasion, Putin’s troops are still in Ukraine, stepping up attacks in the east in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” that has killed thousands and forced millions to flee.

Directed by Penn and Aaron Kaufman, Penn’s film begins a few months before the invasion, when Penn is intrigued by the actor’s transition from the set to the presidential office. The invasion raises the stakes dramatically, turning filmmakers into passionate supporters of Ukraine.

“It started as a hobby,” Kaufman said. “He was David and Goliath, but like the David in that story, he turned out to be much smarter — smarter than old Goliath Putin.”

Produced by Vice, the film follows Penn’s attempts to understand Ukraine, its president, and his struggles.

In the film, Penn and Kaufman argue that the United States should arm Ukraine, thereby making it clear that Zelenskyi’s decision to host them on day one was a smart move in Ukraine’s information war.

“If we don’t win today, the Americans will be at war in a few years,” Zelensky told Penn in a later interview, warning that Ukraine’s loss would have far greater consequences.

For his part, Penn called Ukraine a source of inspiration. “Ukraine is the Beatles of the world,” he told reporters.