Putin

The views of Polish director Patryk Vega on Putin are flagrant (A work on fiction based on fact, Absolute power is never enough) and makes no mistakes in depicting him as an entity of pure, profound evil in this 2025 semi-biographical film. The film has quite a few defaults and curiosities, from the overall approach, to the use of mediocre AI technology that replaces an actor's head with Putin's to an seemingly incoherent narrative. Despite these shortcomings, it is an unabashedly overstylized film; a hypnotic, horrific, never-ending thriller about everything deficient concerning Putin.

Having said that, the score by composer Łukasz Targosz reaches for the same effect of unabashed impact, but with a wider range of richness and even nuance. The score heavily relies on music programming, creating an intense and atmospheric sound design type of score, supplemented by the excellent performances of the piano and the Tarkowsi Orchestra. There is a level of nuance throughout the score deriving from a varied use of sounds and instruments in correlation to taking a minimal, rather bleak music approach. The repetition of short musical phrases is explored exceptionally well through sustained notes by instruments such as the strings and piano, accompanied by either low-key rhythmic or atmospheric waves of electronics. It is often hallucinatory, psychological and brooding, a feeling that goes through many variations, given each scene in the film. Even when presented through loud and harsh electronics, regardless of their quality, it fulfills its purpose very well. The music is one of the most important factors in making the film's incoherent structure work through its consistently minimal approach. Perhaps, the black-and-white cinematography of the scenes in Pripyat, segueing into Putin's KGB time in Dresden, is the best marriage of images and music.

The music by Łukasz Targosz remains unreleased.




(12-03-2025)