A film about the life of Vladimir Putinin which the face of the Russian president is created with artificial intelligence. Simply titled Putin, the biopic is produced by the polish film studio Aio, which used the deepfake technology to replicate the face of the Kremlin leader.
Initially announced in May 2022 and presented in the context of the Cannes Film Festival, Putin marks the English debut of the Polish director Patryk Vegaalso known as Bezalel, and is described as “an intimate and personal look on the [sua] history”.
The plot of Putin
The film tells the life of the Russian leader over 60 years and ends with his death. “A happy ending”, says Vega, spoiling the ending. The idea arrived in 2022, in the early days ofRussian invasion of Ukraine. “Initially I wanted to make a film about the Russian mafia. Then I decided to do it on the biggest gangster of all“, said the director, adding that Putin “is not just a film, but a response to the global quest to understand the motivations and actions of one of today’s most controversial figures.“.
The film’s trailer opens with a scene in which the deepfake Russian president is shown on the floor of a room, trembling and wearing a dirty diaper.
The production of the film
Vega he explained that he developed the technology used in the film – which he also integrates footage shot by Ukrainian directors during the invasion Russian – to give life to one more realistic representation of his cinematic Putin. “Inviting Putin to the studio for 20 thousand shots was not possible, and the archival materials available online did not allow forming a high-resolution deepfake model suitable for cinematic use“, tells. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter the director said he had used a Polish actor with a structure similar to that of the Russian president and and to have then applied AI technology to “superimpose Putin’s face” creating a truly realistic effect, which he said would have been impossible to achieve with traditional special effects such as makeup or prosthetics.
To the Marché du Film de Cannes – the film market held every year in conjunction with the festival to present and promote new projects –, Putin was one of the best-selling and most talked about films. The manufacturers claim that in view of theexit into the room, scheduled for September 26ththe film has already been sold in 50 countriesincluding India and the United States.
This article previously appeared in Wired en español
