VENICE, Italy (AFP) — British actor Jude Law said Sunday he became an “obsessive” watcher of Vladimir Putin as he prepared for his role as the Russian leader in his new film “The Wizard of the Kremlin” which premieres later at the Venice Film Festival.

Law, 52, bears an uncanny resemblance to Putin, aping his scowl and distinctive walking style in the film by French director Olivier Assayas which charts the rise of the former intelligence officer.

“There’s a lot of footage one could watch and, personally when I start going down that rabbit hole, it becomes sort of obsessive,” he told a press conference. “You’re looking for ever more, newer material.”

He said portraying Putin had been a challenge because of his famously deadpan expression.

“The tricky side to me was that the public face that we see (of Putin), we see very, very little,” Law added. “There’s this mask.”

Law insisted he had not aimed for an “impersonation” of Putin and credited the likeness to “an amazing makeup and hair team.”

Assayas insisted he wanted Law “to appropriate the character” and become “a vessel for what he represents.”

The movie, which runs for two and a half hours, is an exhaustive look at Putin’s career muzzling political opponents, cowing oligarchs, and enriching his entourage, told through the eyes of a fictional political advisor, Vadim Baranov, played by Paul Dano.

It is based a top-selling book of the same name by Italian author Giuliano da Empoli.

Assayas said it was first and foremost a story about authoritarianism, with Russia’s transition from a chaotic democracy in the late 1990s to Putin’s modern autocracy a warning for the West.

“We made a movie about what politics has become and the very scary and dangerous situation we all feel we are in,” he explained.

– Jarmusch return –
“The Wizard of the Kremlin” is one of 21 films competing for the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, a key platform for international launches, which runs until Saturday.

Other highlights on Sunday include the premiere of “Father Mother Sister Brother”, the latest film from independent American director Jim Jarmusch, with a stellar cast that include Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and American singer Tom Waits.

The “Broken Flowers” director has called it “a kind of anti-action film”, featuring three separate dysfunctional families in conversation in the rural north-east of the United States, Dublin and Paris.

Saturday saw Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”) deliver a new and big-budget adaptation of “Frankenstein” starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi as his creation.

The film’s rich visuals and performances impressed The Hollywood Reporter which called the Netflix-funded production “epic-scale storytelling of uncommon beauty, feeling and artistry”.

Not everyone was convinced, however, with “Variety” saying the film “cost more than ‘Titanic’ and still looks like it was made for TV”.

– Gaza –
Other in-competition films that have made a mark so far in Venice include Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly satirical “Bugonia” starring Oscar-winner Emma Stone, about two conspiracy-obsessed misfits who kidnap a pharmaceutical company CEO.

Opening night feature “La Grazia” by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino about an Italian president grappling with indecision about euthanasia drew plaudits, as has compatriot Gianfranco Rosi’s sumptuous black-and-white documentary about Naples.

On the sidelines of the festival on Saturday, several thousand protesters marched against Israel’s siege of Gaza in a demonstration called by left-wing political groups in northeast Italy.

The Gaza war was one of the main talking points in the lead up to the festival due to an open letter denouncing the Israeli government and calling on the festival to speak out more forcefully.

Much anticipated is Wednesday’s premiere of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” about the real-life killing of a six-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza by Israeli forces last year.

Directed by Franco-Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, the production has attracted heavyweight Hollywood support from Brad Pitt, Jonathan Glazer and Joaquin Phoenix who have joined as executive producers, according to reports.