Zelensky's story is also the story of Ukraine - a country that grew up in the post-Soviet shadow, trying to find its own political and cultural identity. Stella Stoyanova tells how "Volodya became Zelensky":
Archival footage from the Russian television show KVN shows amateur comedy troupes from all the former Soviet republics competing for the hearts of the audience. One of the teams is from the industrial Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. It is led by a small 17-year-old boy who loves to joke. Zelensky smiles as he looks at these clips from his comedy career, and says he doesn't have much time for nostalgia anymore.
The film Et Volodia devint Zelensky ("Volodya became Zelensky") by Yves Jolan and Ariane Chemin is not a political analysis and does not try to explain the war. It shows us how a TV star with no political experience becomes a symbol of national resistance.
According to political scientist Anna-Colin Lebedev, who studies post-socialist societies, the answer lies not only in the Ukrainian president's personal biography. "He completely embodies the ordinary Ukrainian who wants to oppose armed aggression," says Lebedev, who is visiting Sofia at the invitation of the French Institute. According to her, at the beginning of the Russian invasion, Zelensky turned out to be the right person at the right time. When he chooses to stay in the country and declares "Here we are!", he steps into his new role as a wartime leader.
The Boy from Kryvyi Rih
Zhelan and Shemen's film captures precisely this ordinariness. The camera pans to Kryvyi Rih, the industrial city where Zelensky grew up in the final years of the Soviet Union. Old friends and relatives reminisce about the time when he was just a teenager who loved to be on stage, sing, and entertain others.
In one shot, the Ukrainian president looks at an old class photo and smiles as he listens to his teachers describe him as an inquisitive and energetic student. In the photo, children stand in neat rows with red Pioneer ribbons around their necks. The future president's biography begins with the well-known story of growing up in a post-Soviet industrial city.
And as Lebedev suggests, this is precisely what makes Zelensky such an interesting figure: not because he is an extraordinary leader, but because in many ways he is surprisingly ordinary. She emphasizes that Zelensky's biography is far from the classic image of a national leader. "He is not a person driven by the nationalist project of an independent Ukraine", she says. "His history is very mixed and includes a strong connection to the Soviet past, a career in Russia, and mastering the Russian language more than the Ukrainian one."
Between two languages and two identities
It is precisely this "mixed" identity, which before the war was often perceived as a political weakness, turns out to be an unexpected advantage. Zelensky resembles millions of Ukrainians - people who freely switch between Russian and Ukrainian, raised in the cultural space of the former Soviet Union. "There are many Ukrainians whose parents speak to them in Russian", she explains. "They go to school with Ukrainian textbooks, but the teacher speaks in Russian. They turn on the TV - the journalist asks a question in Russian, and the guest answers in Ukrainian." Before the war, this was everyday life for many Ukrainians. "In this respect, Zelensky is very similar to those Ukrainians whom Russia claims to want to "save," Lebedev notes.
The documentary gradually expands the question: not so much how Zelensky became president, but why he is the figure around whom Ukrainian society recognizes itself at a time of crisis.
For Lebedev, the combination of ordinariness and unexpected historical situation explains Zelensky's role after 2022. "I think Ukraine was lucky to have him in this place," she says. "Of course, he does not perform all the functions perfectly. After four years of war, there are many things that can be criticized - and Ukrainians do criticize them."
The sociologist often hears similar reactions during her trips to Ukraine. "Many people tell me: "I have a lot of things that I don't like about what Zelensky is doing. I could make a long list. But I will make this list later - because as the leader of the state I am completely okay with it."
This attitude is characteristic of the Ukrainian political culture, which is traditionally skeptical of power. A trait typical of post-socialist societies - as well as the Bulgarian one. "Ukrainians usually do not elect the same president twice", Lebedev reminds us. "Their history is more of a history of falling in love with one political leader, then getting disappointed and choosing another."
That's why she doesn't think Zelensky enjoys a cult of personality. "He embodies Ukraine, but if for some reason he's not in power tomorrow, it won't change anything fundamentally."
"Servant of the People" or how life imitates art
The film also traces another important moment - Zelensky's television career. As a young comedian, he participated in KVN - the popular television competition that in the post-Soviet space served as a kind of school for comedians. Later, Zelensky and his colleagues founded the Kvartal 95 studio, which gradually became one of the most successful production studios in Ukraine.
The greatest success came with the series "Servant of the People", first broadcast in 2015. In it, Zelensky plays an ordinary history teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after his angry video against corruption becomes popular on the Internet.
The series quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Its satirical look at Ukrainian politics and the image of an honest, accidental president turned out to be surprisingly close to the mood of society.
Four years later, Zelensky announced his candidacy for president - and won the election with 73% of the vote. For many, this seems like a moment when life literally begins to imitate art.
The state that is closer to the people
According to Lebedev, however, the war is changing not only the image of Zelensky, but also the very attitude of Ukrainians towards their state.
"Many people found themselves in places they never expected to be - in the army, in state institutions," she commented. "People often tell me: the state was very far from us, and now it is getting closer. Because we are here - we are the state."
Ukrainian journalist Natalia Khumenyuk formulates this even more directly: "For the first time in our history, we have a state that is not our enemy." In this sense, Zelensky's story is also the story of Ukraine in recent decades - a country that grew up in the post-Soviet shadow, which is gradually trying to find its own political and cultural identity.
In the last frames of the film, we leave Volodya's story with the sound of an air raid siren, which brings us back to the present. Zelensky is one of the faces of this reality, but he is not its cause. He has become a reflection - the image of a society that, in the conditions of war, is reinventing itself.