"The Zelensky Story" made a splash: the series about the Ukrainian president opened the world's eyes to the real Putin

The BBC premiered "The Zelensky Story," a documentary series about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's journey from comedian to head of state. The new BBC project includes three episodes, each lasting one hour.

Despite the fact that the film was released on September 4, critics were quick to review it. Experts noted that the documentary opened their eyes not only to the president of Ukraine but also to the dictator Putin.

The series, directed by Michael Waldman, includes interviews with Zelenskyy, his wife Olena, friends, and colleagues, as well as fragments of his career in the entertainment industry and his life as a statesman, diplomat, and military leader. The first episode tells the story of Zelenskyy's rise to popularity, the second covers his move into politics and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the last depicts his experience as head of a country at war.

Lucy Mangan, a columnist for The Guardian, described the series as "fascinating to watch but impossible to put into words." According to the journalist, the series conveys the callousness of the Kremlin leader and awakens the viewer's sense of injustice that Putin brings. "Only a movie can convey the warmth, charisma, and humanity radiated by his Ukrainian counterpart, who is full of soul. At the end of the three episodes, it's hard not to notice that their intertwined fates are taking on mythical proportions: good versus evil, darkness versus light, Zelenskyy's love for his country and his people versus Putin's hatred for everything but power," she writes.

Sean O'Tradey of the British newspaper The Independent has drawn sharp contrasts between the Ukrainian and Russian sides. To prove his point, the journalist describes an episode that shows the failed peace talks between Putin and Zelenskyy in Paris. "He [Putin] arrives in a clunky limousine; his interlocutor [Zelenskyy] jumps out of a Renault, in his usual khaki combat gear," O'Treacy writes.

While Putin holds meetings with his officials in "pompous golden palaces" and they are "submissive and frightened," Zelenskyy's colleagues are a team of friends bound by love, not fear, the observer continued. "Putin, an old KGB man, resents what he sees as Russia's humiliation after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is consumed by war, and wants to rule for life, Zelenskyy looks forward, however improbably, to returning to entertainment and winning an Oscar when the war is over and his job is done. Well, he can. As Olena jokes, "he always wins," the review says.

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