AI Film 'Putin' Sparks Controversy, Draws Russian Spy Attention

A film about Vladimir Putin has been made using artificial intelligence.

Titled "Putin," the film, which combines advanced technology with traditional filmmaking, has been a long time coming. As the U.K.'s Telegraph reported, Polish director Patryk Vega hired actor Slawomir Sobala to study Putin's body language, gait, and mannerisms for two years, then used artificial intelligence to superimpose the Russian leader's face onto Sobala's, resulting in the final production.

"The audience needed to see the real Putin on screen," Vega has said. "They see him every day in the media. Even the best actor with great make-up wouldn't convincingly portray a figure everyone in the world knows so well. Inviting Putin to the studio for 20,000 shots wasn't an option, and achieving the highest resolution detail is impossible without having a physical human model to photograph in a studio. Without this real-world reference, AI simply cannot replicate the level of precision we've accomplished."

A film about Putin will inevitably raise eyebrows and the trailer for the film, which offers a harsh portrayal of the Russian leader, has caught the attention of Putin's spies.

"I had a really funny experience with Russian intelligence," Vega said at the Cannes Film Festival last May. "They took from LinkedIn whole numbers of mobile phones for my crew and started messaging these people, saying things like, 'I am an assistant to a congressman from South Dakota, I hear you made this film. My boss would like to pay $100,000 for a screening of this movie, and also for a script.'"

Thinking that they were trying to figure out how the film would negatively portray Putin, Vega said he decided to have some fun with them.

"I started a conversation with them posing as a costume designer," he recalled. "I started negotiating a price, it was $200,000, I told them they need to send me the first transfer, $10,000 just for proof. They agreed. When they asked where to send the transfer, he gave them the details of Agencja Wywiadu, the Polish version of MI6. The messages immediately stopped."

That being said, there are risks, as seen with figures like Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei Skripal, and Alexei Navalny. Vega explained that "lots of distributors and companies felt fear" but he was not afraid of angering Putin. And it has paid off. Distribution rights for the $14 million film have now been sold in more than 50 countries, he said.

"Whether speaking with distributors in countries like India and Brazil, who are electrified by the prospect of creating a currency to counter the dollar, or in South Korea, which finds the film especially poignant due to its tensions with North Korea, the response is the same," he added. "Even in Africa, people connect deeply with the film amid fears of famine due to grain embargoes. Putin's narrative is a global one."

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