DAU is a 2026 drama film directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Inspired by the lives of Soviet physicists who developed the atomic bomb, the film follows the brilliant scientist Dau across four decades of life in the Soviet Union, from 1928 to 1968.Is DAU a Film or a Series? How Do You Watch It? Was There Really Violence on Set?. Meduza. 24 January 2019 (in Russian).‘There Is a Logic, It Is Just Different’. Seance (in Russian).DAU: the never-ending experiment in a Soviet laboratory. British Film Institute.Interview: Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Film Comment.
A co-production of Germany, France, Sweden, and Russia, it assembles footage shot between 2008 and 2011, together with additional material filmed in 2024, into a single feature over a production history spanning more than two decades. As the director's statement puts it, "the starting point was my interest in the human being — in our ability to love, to create and to be free, to make moral choices and to experience happiness in a world where a totalitarian system gradually changes human nature itself."
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 9 September 2026, where Khrzhanovsky won the Silver Lion for Best Director.
Premise The action unfolds largely inside a closed Soviet research institute, where scientific hierarchy, privilege and constant surveillance define daily existence. As his room for independent action narrows, Dau seeks release in a succession of affairs outside his marriage, a pattern that gradually costs him his attachments and his sense of self. The narrative covers the four decades from 1928 to 1968.
"Driven to understand the laws of the universe, Dau is soon forced to use his genius in service of the state and help create the deadliest weapon in history. [...] DAU is both an intimate portrait of one man and a monumental fresco of a society shaped by violence and ideology."
Cast
Teodor Currentzis Radmila Shchogolieva Anatoly Vasiliev Vladimir Azhippo Dmitri Tcherniakov Dmitry Cheglakov Demian Kudryavtsev Maria Nafpliotou Ekaterina Andreeva Victoriia Skytska Konstantin Leshan Ekaterina Pachkovskaya Alexei Blinov Aleksey Trifonov Peteris Kimelis Dmitry Kaledin Nikita Nekrasov Alexander Migdal David Gross Carlo Rovelli James H. Fallon Peter Sellars Daniil Ishmatov Yuriy Alekseev Pavel Gordienko Vladimir Yermolenko Nikolay Voronov Anna Volkova Andrey Losev Fyodor Sofronov
The film also features performances by Carsten Höller, Marina Abramović, and Romeo Castellucci as themselves.
Development Project markets, fundraising and financing In 2005, the project was named the best project at the European project market Sofia Meetings, held as part of the Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria, and was selected among the ten leading projects at the international co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In 2006, it was chosen as one of 18 leading projects worldwide for the international film workshop at the Cannes Film Festival, France. In 2006, the film’s co-producers included Philippe Bober and Susanne Marian, (Essential Filmproduktion, Germany, and Société Parisienne de Production, France), Phenomen Films, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), WDR/Arte (Germany), Arte France Cinéma (France), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (Germany), Eurimages, The Swedish Film Institute (Sweden), Film i Väst (Sweden), Hubert Bals Fund (the Netherlands). The production was later supported by private funding, which was halted in 2019.Dau director Ilya Khrzhanovsky: my ‘pornographic propaganda’ recreating the USSR is more important than ever
Ukrainian State Film Agency allocated funding for one of the Dau project films in 2012. In April 2018, one of the films in the DAU project was submitted to the Ukrainian State Film Agency commission.
The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation allocated 22.5 million rubles for the film in 2006. In 2015, the subsidy was returned to the Ministry in full, with interest of 8 million rubles.
Screenplay Work on the screenplay was begun by Ilya Khrzhanovsky together with Vladimir Sorokin; during production, particularly in the Moscow filming block, the plot began to develop according to its own internal logic, structured around dramatic turning points.Илья Хржановский: "Я снимаю для близких по духу людей"Логика есть, просто она другаяЧто такое «Дау», новая парижская сенсация
Casting In 2005, Khrzhanovsky co-founded Phenomen Films companyPHENOMEN FILMS LLC that launched the REKA project, the "Russian Unified Casting Agency," under which thousands of interviews with professional actors were recorded across approximately 57 regions of Russia, using a method developed by theatre director Boris Yukhananov."Дау" - это путешествие During this work, Khrzhanovsky decided to cast non-professional performers in Dau: "There are almost no actors in ‘Dau.’ If there are any, they were chosen for reasons entirely unrelated to their professional abilities. Face. Energy. Substance." "I invite people who carry a destiny, a consciousness, and a meaning behind them." The film’s only professional actress, Radmila Shchogolieva, who worked specifically before filming to shed her habitual acting strategies,The Movie Set That Ate Itself, by Michael Idov was cast only after filming had already begun in Kharkiv.Через полтора месяца в Харькове начнутся съемки фильма о Ландау This approach shaped a working method that ultimately produced a character database of 392,000 people. Conductor Teodor Currentzis was invited to play Dau as a personality whose scale and temperament were comparable to those of the character.«Советский запах еще не выветрился. Мы по-прежнему его источаем»Inside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me' The older Dau was played by another person, the artist Yuri Alexeev.
The material world The decision to work with non-professional performers placed particular emphasis on creating a material world that would enable them to reveal themselves: a world at once exhaustively detailed and invented. "I must create conditions for the person playing a particular role that allow them to enter the frame with the whole of the life they had before me", as the director put it. Every prop—including tableware, small household objects, food, packaging, and bags—was either made or selected to correspond to the period depicted, even when it appeared only in the background or remained entirely outside the frame.How Khrzhanovskiy’s DAU was TailoredКак в Харькове снимали "Дау": воспоминания участников
Artistic language Filming was divided into three blocks corresponding to stages in the title character’s life: Leningrad, Kharkiv, and Moscow. Each was defined by its own aesthetic at the level of the material world being created—architecture and interiors, costumes, makeup, and hairstyles—as well as casting and cinematography.В Поисках Дау All three principal cinematographers on the project were non-Russian speakers. For the director, this was important in order to obtain "a different gaze," "somewhat detached, yet directed toward revealing the substance". From the outset, the decision was made to shoot on 35 mm film—in cinematographer Jürgen Jürges’ account, in order to reproduce a "gaze" characteristic of the period in which the story takes place.ЮРГЕН ЮРГЕС: Я И МОИ ЧЕРНЫЕ АНГЕЛЫ СТАЛИ ЧАСТЬЮ «ДАУ», ЭТОГО МИРА The preparatory period took place in 2006 and involved extensive archival research and location scouting. Filming began in 2007.Таково истинное «ДАУ»
Production Leningrad shooting block (2008) The palette of the Leningrad filming block, set in 1928, was "borrowed from the paintings of Pavel Filonov." Lol Crawley contributed as cinematographer, and Boris Shapovalov as production designer. The costumes were designed by Alexandra Smolina, Alexandra Timofeeva, Lyubov Mingazitinova, Irina Tsvetkova, and Stefania Gaurogkaitė. During the Moscow filming block, sisters Olga Bekritskaya and Elena Bekritskaya joined the team, while Stefania Gaurogkaitė’s involvement was limited to the first filming block. The scale and methods used to create the street scenes and crowd sequences from the early period of Dau’s life, filmed in this block,From Soviet Hairstyles to Contemporary Gender Politics were developed further in the Kharkiv block.
Kharkiv shooting block (2008–2009) The Kharkiv period, covering 1932–1938, is characterized by a gradual reduction in colour intensity and by crumpled, yielding textures—"the world of little earthen people". The cinematographer was Manuel Alberto Claro, who specifically emphasized the role of Constructivist architecture in shaping the visual language.Назад в прошлое: Сумскую, Полтавский Шлях и площадь Свободы вернут на 70 лет назад Later in this filming block, Jürgen Jürges took over as cinematographer. The production designer for the Kharkiv block was Olga Gurevich. The search for participants, premises, vehicles, and props began approximately a year and a half before the first location shoot. By October 2008, around 50,000 people had taken part in casting. More than 180,000 photographs of city residents were taken during the search—in schools, institutions, public transport, and on the streets."Мосфильм" снимает в Харькове киноСъемочной группе «Дау» не хватает актеров. Харьковчане, выручайте The filming block began in autumn 2008; one of its first major scenes was shot on Poltavskyi Shliakh on 17–19 October.ДАУ в Харькове
Work with the urban environment and the creation of art objects More than 35 urban spaces and sites were used for filming, including Poltavskyi Shliakh, Station Square, Kharkiv Zoo, Vorobiov Lane, Sumska Street and the area around the Taras Shevchenko monument, Freedom Square, Darwin and Krasnoarmeyskaya streets, the Railway Workers’ Palace of Culture, Derzhprom, and others. For the scene of Dau’s arrival in Kharkiv, a full-scale replica of the K-7 aircraft was constructed, approximately 12 metres high with a wingspan of 54 metres. For all location filming, city sites and spaces were altered so that they would become part of the artistic universe of Dau: modern window units and façades were given period textures, streetlights were draped, asphalt was covered with gravel,Лица харьковчан увидят в Каннах. Корреспондент «Объектив-Но» снималась в массовке фильма «Дау» modern signs were removed and replaced with historical ones. Vintage cars, trams, motorcycles, bicycles, horse-drawn vehicles, and railway rolling stock were used in crowd scenes. In June 2009, an episode featuring a train styled after the 1930s was filmed near the Southern Railway Station. The train was brought to the location along tram tracks; the locomotive was built by the Dau art department.Ночью в Харькове снова снимали «Дау» According to the recollections of the Kharkiv Vintage Car Club director, the production used eighteen cars, three motorcycles, and one bicycle. The vehicles were not only restored but also modified: fenders, headlights, and other exterior elements were replaced. The search for flat pre-war headlight glass and suitable tyres took around eight months. The fenders of some trucks were remade from scratch. Sound engineers recorded the original engine sound of a ZIS-5 truck separately. For the K-7 aircraft scene, approximately fifteen truckloads of black soil were delivered to the airfield. The soil was mixed with water and diesel fuel to create deep mud through which people and vehicles had to move, with chains fitted to their wheels. For the scene in Vorobiov Lane in which Dau is beaten, seventy tonnes of cabbage were purchased and covered with cement.Controversial Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky on Failing at Venice, Getting Banned in Russia, Ordering 70 Tons of Cabbage and Casting Criminals as Judges
Crowd scenes