News

Polish filmmaker Patryk Vega is attending the AFM to talk up his AI-generated biopic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as seeking US partners for future AI-supported projects, through his production banner Aio Studios.

Putin has already been sold to 35 countries and is in discussion for multiple additional markets, being sold by Germany’s Kinostar. The company is releasing directly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, UK and Ireland. TriCoast released theatrically in the US.

The feature took 18 months to film with a budget of $15m from private sources, shooting across Poland, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Russia and Ukraine...

Putin, a new political biopic being shopped to international distributors at next week’s Cannes film market, could test the waters for how much AI the film industry, and the audience, is prepared to accept.

The drama from Polish director Besaleel, also known as Patryk Vega, recreates Russian leader Vladimir Putin using artificial intelligence that was developed in-house with his own technology company Aio, creating what the director terms the “first deepfake” feature film.

German group Kinostar is handling world sales for Putin and will be shopping it to international distributors at the upcoming Cannes film market. Kinostar began sales on the film at the AFM last year and will release the film itself in several European territories.

Putin

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Besaleel said he shot scenes of the Russian leader using a Polish actor with a similar build and used AI technology to “overlay Putin’s face on the actor,...

Polish director Besaleel’s film will feature an AI-rendered Russian president and footage shot by Ukrainian film-makers during the Russian invasion

The “world premiere” of a new biopic of Russian president Vladimir Putin featuring an AI-rendered central character, has been announced for 26 September. In a statement released via PR Leap, Polish studio Aio said the film, titled Putin, will be released in 35 countries, and describes itself as “up close and personal with the Kremlin leader’s story”.

First announced in May 2022, Putin is the English-language debut of Polish director Besaleel, also known as Patryk Vega, who was responsible for a string of homegrown box-office hits characterised by grisly violence and glossy production values including Pitbull, Mafia Women and Botoks.

Polish box office king Patryk Vega has set his sights on Vladimir Putin.

Vega, who now goes by the artistic name Besaleel, is best known for his gangster films, including local hits Pitbull and Women of Mafia, which have grossed a cumulative $100 million plus at the Polish box office. But for his English-language debut, the director is taking on the man he sees as the world’s biggest mafia boss: The Russian President.

Putin is pitched as a political thriller and psychological portrait of the Russian leader for an international audience. Originally titled The Vor in Law, a reference to a Russian mafia term akin to “the godfather,” the film posits connections between Putin’s links to organized crime in his time as mayor of St. Petersburg and his approach to politics, both inside Russia and on the international stage. Besaleel has called the film an artistic protest against “the...