The film 'Putin,' which uses AI to superimpose Putin's face onto an actor's, sparks debate about the ethical impact of using AI
The film 'Putin', which has been released in Poland since January 10, 2025, is a biographical film about Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 'Putin', in order to realistically depict President Putin's appearance, a technique was used to use AI to superimpose Putin's face onto the face of the lead actor, Slavomir Sobala.
Polish director uses AI to create biopic about Putin
Polish Putin film using AI to generate Russian leader's face set for premiere | Notes From Poland
The wild, AI-assisted biopic Putin doesn't want you to see
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/ai-assisted-biopic-putin/
Below is the trailer for the movie 'Putin.' It depicts the life of Putin, who calls himself 'the most dangerous man on Earth.'
PUTIN (2025) Official Trailer - YouTube
'I was originally planning to make a movie about Russian gangsters, but after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I decided to focus on Putin, Russia's biggest gangster,' said Polish film director Patrick Vega. Vega also pointed out that 'the audience sees Putin in the media every day. Therefore, even if you put the best makeup on the best actor, you can't make him convincingly look like Putin.'
So, in order to perfectly play the role of Putin, the lead actor Sobala studied Putin's body language, how he walks, how he enters a room, etc. for two years. Vega also used AI to recreate Putin's face on Sobala's face, creating a realistic portrayal of Putin's appearance. Vega said, 'I never considered the option of actually inviting Putin to the studio to shoot. Normally, you can't recreate a real person in high resolution unless you shoot a physical person in a studio, but AI made that possible.'
'Putin' has been well received by some of the viewers, and at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, Vega revealed that a Russian intelligence agent who was interested in the film offered him $200,000 (about 31 million yen) posing as an American buyer.
Vega also said, 'Many distributors and companies are scared of the film, and one American public relations company is afraid that Russia will attack their company with missiles. But we have received requests for distribution rights from many countries, and I personally have no fear of incurring the wrath of the Russian government.'
On the other hand, while some people have praised the creativity of the effort to use AI to paste Putin's face onto an actor's face, others have raised the issue of ethical issues. In response to these criticisms, Vega argued, 'Putin has been accused of war crimes, so there should be no problem with filming this movie,' and 'Putin should only be able to understand violent language.'
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