Putin in diapers: deepfake film on Russian leader sells big at Cannes
- Polish director Patryk Vega’s biopic uses AI to generate the ruler’s face and transplant it onto the body of a real actor
- The film, which depicts Putin from age 10 up to his fictional death, has already been sold in 50 countries ahead of its premiere, producers say
When Russian President Vladimir Putin was unavailable to star in his biopic, Polish director Patryk Vega turned to artificial intelligence.
The groundbreaking film, whose trailer starts with the leader cowering on a floor in diapers, uses a deepfake of the ruler’s face transplanted onto the body of a real actor.
“To come extremely close to the dictator, we needed Putin, not an actor with make-up,” Vega said at the Cannes Film Festival, where he has been shopping the film to buyers.
“I called Putin and asked him if he wanted to play in my movie … No, that was a joke.”
Vega – a 47-year-old director, who has made several hit Polish films – used AI to generate just the face, since he lacked enough high-resolution images for a full-body deepfake. The results are uncanny.
