Putin the Film Director

It would seem Putin is looking to strengthen his resume beyond that of the swimmer, hunter, fighter pilot, judo master and horseback rider – try adding film director to the list.

That’s right.  Putin has thrown his hat into the domestic film scene, invoking, of all things, the history of Hollywood as an example to follow:

The Great Depression in the United States gave a very important impulse to the development of American cinematography, and made this industry super-profitable.

Putin’s main bone to pick was that “goals of economic, cultural, and humanitarian influence are not being reached.”

What exactly the Prime Minister meant by these remarks, particularly the extremely vague “humanitarian influence” remain unclear up to press time.

Russia has a “rich cinematographic heritage,” Putin continued, “but our product does not so far have a mass foreign audience.”

The Russian has of course scored a few big hits in the last few years, particularly with the success of the Day Watch / Night Watch franchise as well as Gengis Khan epic Mongol.  Is Putin advocating more in this vein of filmmaking, or might he actually be suggesting that Russia should be looking to its own Socialist Realism past in order to deliver on the “humanitarian influence”?