Putin

It is 2026 and as a world leader, clad only in a diaper, shakes on the floor, a general gives him the type of news he likes to hear - that it is the West who should be called authoritarian, that their sanctions on his country have cost them more, that Americans are riding bikes because they can no longer afford cars and are fleeing their coastal cities. The man on the floor is 'Putin."

Laura's Review: D

Director Patryk Vega has famously used AI to digitally make up actor Slawomir Sobala as Vladimir Putin and while he reportedly spent two years on the process, the result is still unconvincing. While it is a step up from the conductor on "The Polar Express," there is no life to the performance, as is the case with most of the English language performances in this Polish production. Ironically, the most convincing portrait comes from Tomasz Dedek, whose perpetually drunk Boris Yeltsin appears the most true to life character.

The most charitable thing to say about Vega's movie is that it is an unabashed condemnation of the man who has caused so much human suffering. Vega uses the conceit of keeping Putin's childhood bully, Samiel (Maksymilian Zieliński), the boy who accepted Vladimir only after he punched back, as his advisor into adulthood, akin to a fantastical Roy Cohn influence on Donald Trump. The adult Legion (Justyna Karłowska), a woman wearing a Soviet fur hat, is another constant companion, apparently representing Russian women, although, like much in this film, her genesis is unclear, her role only coming into focus as she mourns the dead of a school shooting and other civilian catastrophes after having initially been pro-Putin. She is the yin to Samiel's yang.

Vega attempts to cover many significant events, from Putin's childhood through his changing of the Russian constitution to remain in power, but he jumps around in time too much, going from Putin's mother shoving him on a train to Leningrad in 1960 to his introduction to Yeltsin in 1996, then back to his mid-80's stint in Dresden with the KGB, continuing to hopscotch through history in a manner that lends little clarity. While we do come away understanding that Putin often pulled strings to create Russian enemies in incidents that harmed his own people in order to unite them behind him, most significantly with the two Chechen wars, we see nothing of the oligarchy being created after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Assassinations are plentiful, as is a look into Putin's role in mining cesium for profit after the Chernobyl disaster, a poisonous substance that would become associated with his murders. Putin's relationship with St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who initially underestimates him, is given a lot of screen time. The annexation of Crimea and Ukraine War also come into play, Vega using footage shot by Ukrainians.

There are times when it is really difficult to figure out just what is going on, like chatter about Bill Clinton having codes of some kind during the Chechen war. Putin's personal life, aside from his abandonment by his mother (to protect him from an abusive stepfather), is left to a judo competition at the age of seventeen, his divorce from his wife of 30 years for an Olympic gymnast, illustrated here as him being caught in flagrante before condemning his wife to being 'erased from the history books,' and a game of paintball where women dressed as Playboy bunnies are both the targets and the prizes. His baptism during a trip to Jerusalem is given little context.

Overall, the film's visuals resemble something from the 1990's, the desaturated, hyper-real look of Timur Bekmambetov's 2004 "Night Watch" coming to mind. "Putin" may be a curiosity, but as a biopic it's a mess. Vega's idea of an emotionally gutting climax is to focus on a puppy, cat and hamster before a nuclear apocalypse.

Robin's Review: D+

Vladimir Putin is one of the most powerful dictators in the world, ruling Russia with an iron fist. Director Patryk Vega tells the despot’s story from the time his mother abandoned him to 2026 and his anticipated downfall in “Putin.”

As an avid student of history, I am always game for a film that deals with a political subject, especially one as heinous as Vladimir Putin. And, given that the director is Polish and apparently not a fan of the Russian despot, I am even more for it. As such, I expected, if not enlightenment, something original and very entertaining. I am disappointed, to say the least.

Putin’s story begins at the supposed end – Putin is a quivering mass wielding (or not wielding) his power from a mental institute under intense care. So, the stage is set that the end of Putin’s reign of terror is nearing its end. Then, we jump back in time to an adolescent Vlad being bullied. At this point, I expected a linear telling, in episodes, of the life and making of a Russian dictator.

Unfortunately, it is not a linear telling. Instead, the filmmakers jump around the high points in Putin’s history in such a jumble that it is confusing, even if you know about the man, which I do.

The rambling back and forth in time does little to inform the viewer about Putin, except to say he is a ruthless, murderous a**hole. In no order, we see Vlad as a KGB colonel in East Germany, doing corruption in Leningrad, sucking up to Boris Yeltsin in Moscow, seizing power through rigged elections, fighting the independence of former Soviet republics, the fall of Communism, the rise of Vlad with the blood of the people on his hands.
Throughout this confused pastiche of history, fact and fiction, the filmmakers use “symbols” – the bully from Vlad’s youth and a fur clad young woman representing the old Soviet guard with a mirthful expression – to limited success.

One of the “highlights” touted here is that “Putin” is an actor with the dictator’s face applied via CGI. It does not work. The CGI face does not appear to move much and lacks expression. The intent is there but the execution is lacking.

I wondered, after sitting through this mishmash, how it could be fixed. The answer is, I think, to rejigger it so Vlad’s story is told in chronological order, drop the CGI and use makeup instead and lose the “symbols.” There could be an entertaining and enlightening movie here and a good history lesson, too. But, there is not.

Horizon Events releases "Putin" in theaters on 1/10/25.