Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) has created a nice little business for himself with the Screenlife format popularized by films such as Searching and Unfriended, and now there's a trailer for his latest directorial effort, Profile, which he helmed back in 2018.
Profile follows a British journalist (Valene Kane) as she goes undercover in a quest to bait and expose a terrorist recruiter (Shazad Latif) through social media while trying not to be lured into becoming a militant extremist herself.
The unconventional thriller plays out entirely on a computer screen, and the story seems to lend itself well to the Screenlife format, since the journalist and the terrorist use FaceTime to communicate. As seen below, she also uses Google Translate to speak his language and earn his trust.
Bekmambetov directed Profile himself, and co-wrote the script with Britt Poulton and Olga Kharina. Bekmambetov and Kharina also produced the film, which Focus Features will release in theaters on May 14.
Sure, Profile has been sitting on a shelf for several years awaiting a U.S. release following its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2018, but I think this movie looks pretty damn good, and I love how Bekmambetov is using the Screenlife format to tell different kinds of genre stories. This one certainly looks unique and I'm excited to check it out myself next month.
Watch the effective trailer below, and let me know if Focus has successfully recruited you to be part of the audience for Profile, or if you plan to skip this movie following a year's worth of Zoom calls.