Polish director makes Putin biopic using deep fake technology
A Polish filmmaker has used deep fake technology to recreate Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new hard-hitting biopic about the strongman.
Using AI to superimpose the face of the Russian leader onto an actor, director Patryk Vega, who is known for his gritty gangster films, said that for his English-language debut he was now "taking on the world's biggest mafia boss."
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the director said that the film, which is titled simply 'Putin,' was "an artistic protest against the dictator and the war in Ukraine."
"I decided to strike Putin with an artistic weapon," he said. "The camera is my weapon."
"The film is intended to provide western audiences with a key to understanding the dictator's disturbed psyche," Vega continued.
He added: "We decided to use deep fake technology because we couldn't bring Putin to the studio.
"This is a film about a real person so we have the real face," he said.
"It took us a year to develop our own technology and achieve the desired effect," Vega said. "It was very difficult and not even two studios from the United States that had tried to do it before managed it.
"I was about to give up when, after a year, we managed to create our own technology that finally gave the desired effect."
Billed as a 'political thriller and psychological portrait,' the 2.5-hour-long movie delves into Putin's connections to organised crime, as well as his attitude towards both domestic and international politics.
The director said: "This is his full-blooded, uncompromising biography taking place over 60 years.
"It begins when he is 10 years old and abused by his stepfather.
"We go through Putin's entry into the KGB, his KGB posting to Dresden, then his quasi-criminal activity as a deputy mayor in St. Petersburg, through both Chechen wars, the attack on the theatre in Dubrovka, the terrorist attack on the school in Beslan, the blowing up of blocks of flats in Russia by the FSB, and then we reach Ukraine."
Vega continued: "For Putin, Ukraine is just a battleground with the West.
"Russians believe they are saving people of Russian origin from Ukrainian territory, which they consider a quasi-state.
"My film is an appeal for the mobilisation of the West because the only path for all of us is to collectively defeat Putin in this war."
Taking two years to make, the film draws upon both documented events as well as first-hand accounts from people who had connections to the dictator.
With the production's trailer being showcased in Ukraine and during the American Film Market, where it received rave reviews, the film is set to premiere later this year after global distribution deals have been finalised.
Vega said: "I have faith that this material will, to some extent, bring the topic of tragedy and war back to the lips of people around the world, at least for a moment.
"If you think that Putin is fighting Ukraine, then such a belief is wrong. From my experience as a human being who survived communism in his youth, for Putin Ukraine is not an entity in this conflict at all.
"For Putin, Ukraine is only a battlefield with the West, so there should be no illusion that he will stop at Ukraine."
The film was shot on location in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Jordan and Israel. (PAP)
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