Peter Bart: AI-Augmented ‘Putin’ Brings An Uncertain Reality To The Big Screen
The actor’s name is Slawomir Sobala and he plays “the most despised person in the world.” He knows he likely won’t receive any awards for his performance despite its power and timeliness and the personal risks in its physical production.
His movie, titled Putin, opens January 10 on screens in 64 countries, including about 200 in the U.S. The chilling biopic about the Russian despot’s climb to power carries the subtitle “Absolute power is not enough.”
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Foreign policy experts speculate that a Vladimir Putin-Donald Trump summit could coincidentally take place within weeks of the movie’s opening. Patryck Vega, its Polish director, is far from optimistic about the results of such a summit given the overreaching egos and appetites of the two leaders. And the nuclear threats already exchanged.
Vega, who has spent years studying Putin’s coming of age and climb to power, shot his $14 million movie in locations in Poland, Russia, Ukraine (even Chernobyl) and Israel. The director and his crew were often under great peril, shutting locations and running for cover.
Much of the dialogue is in English with generous subtitles.
The character of Putin, played by Sobala, who is Polish, essentially represents the combined creation of AI and other digital makeup. The actor himself looks remarkably like Putin, but his face and physique have been altered to enhance the similarities. Putin as a child is shown being beaten by Russian classmates and, again, the character’s counterattacks seem distinctly Putin-like.
Putin represents the first International film for Vega, 47, a former journalist who has made several documentaries and thrillers. Financing for his new film comes from private sources, but he fears that naming them would subject them to threats from Russian sources. Horizon Events, the film distributor, acquired U.S. rights.
“I would have liked my film to play the festival circuit but I did not finish in time,” Vega explains. “But I believe the film will find an international following because the Russian oligarch is still an unknown figure. People want to get into his head.”
Despite the immense cost and casualties of Putin’s war in Ukraine, his grip on his country remains firm, Vega comments. According to the New York Times this week, a growing number of Russians even accept the inevitable use of nuclear weapons in the war.
“My aim in this film is to unlock the mind of Putin,” says Vega, who lives in Paris and Switzerland. “Americans, too, fear the unknown.”
The film reveals how a young Putin gains control of the various Russian bureaucracies through sinister manipulation, cutting off the internet and other media when necessary. In one scene he even confounds the Soviet establishment by smuggling truckloads of toilet paper to Moscow – a rare commodity at that moment.
Will Putin and Trump be able to strike a substantive relationship? On one level Trump is troubled by the reality that Putin, not Elon Musk or himself, is the wealthiest man in the world. Like Trump, the Russian doesn’t drink and rarely sleeps.
Nor did Sobola as the lead: While vividly portraying Putin, Sobala, an AI-augmented actor, could stir confusion during the next awards season. The role of AI in performance is still a grey area, according to the guilds and even the Academy. Is AI a threat even to acting?
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