Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Film director praises ‘effortlessly personable’ Ukrainian president

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been praised for his resolution (Peter Nicholls/PA)
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been praised for his resolution (Peter Nicholls/PA)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been hailed as “effortlessly personable” with a “resoluteness” that is “a mirror of the Ukrainian people” by a director who has worked on 10 films with the leader.

Before his election to the presidency in 2019, he was better known in the entertainment world as a TV satirist and comedian.

His best-known role was in Servant Of The People, a comedy series in which he played a high-school teacher propelled to the presidency after a student’s video of him denouncing official corruption in Ukraine goes viral.

Boris Johnson visit to US
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Boris Johnson (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The programme began airing in 2015 on Ukrainian channel 1+1 and became hugely popular, racking up three series and a feature film.

After the show was a hit with the Ukrainian public, Mr Zelensky ran for and won a large majority in the 2019 presidential election.

American film director David Dodson, who directed a string of films with him, told BBC Breakfast: “He is effortlessly personable. He is somebody who always makes you feel like you’re trusted, like you are about to do your best work, and that he believes in you to be able to bring that.

“I started out editing his movies and I ended up directing him in three films and he always made me feel like I was Spielberg, he would come on to the set and look at you and and you just felt completely capable.

“So it’s not surprising that he’s risen to this moment, at least not to me.”

He added: “Whatever we see in the way of courage, whatever we see in the way of stalwartness and resoluteness is really just a mirror of the Ukrainian people.

“My experience in Ukraine, and I’m married to a Ukrainian woman for 12 years now that I met on a Zelensky movie in Kyiv, is that this is who they are.

“So it’s not surprising to see, to see Volodymyr behaving this way, because in my experience, it’s the heart of who Ukrainians are.”

Asked if he knew about Mr Zelensky’s political aspirations, Dodson said: “It was never discussed. On the last film that we did together during 2018 he was actively planning his campaign, it was an open secret, but he never talked about it and he really discouraged anybody from talking about it.

“It wasn’t something that he wanted anybody to know anything about, so it was very separate – his work life and home life and then whatever that was going to be.

“We all knew that he was going to declare his candidacy but it was a completely taboo subject on set and in the offices.”

Mr Zelensky also provided the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian dubbing of the 2014 and 2017 films, and won the country’s version of Dancing With The Stars in 2006.