International documentary film sales, distribution and production company Claw has acquired international distribution rights to Face of Power, directed by Emmy and Grierson Award-winning director James Jones, whose credits include Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes and Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn.Antidoteand Fukushima.
The Face of Power project, currently in development, has been selected for IDFA, where Dogwoof will present the project this month.
The film, produced by BAFTA award winner Sasha Odinova, marks the third collaboration between Dogwoof and Jones, following BIFA and Grierson nominated films The Antidote and Fukushima, which Dogwoof are due to release next year.
'The Face of Power', told through rare archival footage, is a 'chilling and gripping' portrait Vladimir PutinRussia's rise from obscurity to autocracy. It's a psychological study of how one man “used television as a weapon to control a nation, deceive the world and lead Russia to war,” Dogwof said.
The newly discovered footage will be woven into the “hypnotic flow of state media” and accompanied by audio testimonies from those who witnessed his rise and lived under his rule, such as journalists, insiders, dissidents and ordinary citizens. Their voices “permeate the spectacle, offering moments of reflection, grief, resistance and warning.”
The Face of Power is not just the story of Putin's rule; it's the story of how he was seen – “misunderstood, mythologized and included,” Dogwof said. “It is both a reckoning with the past and a warning of what lies ahead.”
Oli Harbottle, Dogwoof's chief content officer, said: “It's a pleasure to be working with James again following the success of The Antidote earlier this year and the launch of Fukushima early next year. At Face of Power we are excited by his creative vision for the project and are confident that he will present a unique and insightful perspective on the ever-relevant topic of media manipulation used to consolidate political power.”
Jones and Odinova added: “Putin has rewritten the script for modern dictators – mastering the manipulation of the truth and the suppression of dissent – yet he remains strangely unknowable. With this epic, cinematic investigative film, we aim to demystify and reveal the forces that shaped one of the world's most dangerous dictators. The fact that Putin personally targeted my friend and colleague Hristo Grozev only strengthened my resolve to make this film.”
