[Katya's Romantic Disillusionment] │ ▼ [Intimate Bond with Tanya (Safe Haven)] │ ▼ [First Department / KGB Intervention] │ ▼ [Totalitarian Erasure of Identity] The DAU Production Methodology
The Katya Tanya sub-project aimed to explore the effects of long-term sensory deprivation on the human brain, focusing on the development of new forms of perception, cognition, and social interaction. The two women were placed in a shared isolation cell, where they lived for several years, with minimal contact with the outside world.
Ultimately, Katya and Tanya serve as a fractured mirror reflecting the audience’s own discomfort. We watch them, much like the institute’s scientists watch their subjects, seeking a coherent narrative or a moral escape. But DAU denies us closure. The women do not ride off into the sunset or stage a heroic rebellion. Instead, they endure. They adjust. They betray one another slightly, then pull back. In this liminal space of half-measures and quiet desperation, Khrzhanovsky finds his most devastating thesis: under total observation, even the deepest bonds become another performance. Katya and Tanya are not heroines or victims. They are survivors—and in the world of DAU , that is the most haunting role of all.
Love, Bureaucracy, and Female Subjectivity in "DAU. Katya Tanya"
The plot of DAU. Katya Tanya is deliberately modest and personal. The film’s central figure is Katya (played by Ekaterina Uspina), a young librarian working at a top-secret Soviet research institute. The narrative initially unfolds in a prologue set in 1942, depicting Katya’s youthful romance with a scientist tragically killed in World War II. A brutal jump cut transports us to 1952, where we find her profoundly altered. The light has disappeared from her face. She moves through the gray, bureaucratic labyrinth of the institute with a weary resignation, engaging in a series of unsatisfying, emotionally barren affairs with various men. DAU. Katya Tanya
The artistic vision behind "DAU. Katya Tanya" is characterized by its stark realism and attention to detail. The cinematography captures the essence of the Soviet-era backdrop, transporting viewers to a bygone era. The use of natural lighting, combined with the spontaneous nature of the performances, adds a layer of realism that is both captivating and thought-provoking.
However, in the suffocating atmosphere of a Soviet institution, even a glimmer of happiness is a liability. The film's synopsis, repeated across multiple sources, concludes with a stark warning: "But then the First Department interferes". The "First Department" was the chillingly bureaucratic name for the state security services operating within Soviet institutions, and they view the women's relationship as "unacceptable for a Soviet woman". This interference transforms a story of romance into a tragedy of oppression.
The film stands as a testament to the power of independent art to challenge political and social norms. It remains a landmark entry in the ambitious, controversial, and unforgettable DAU project, an important work of Russian cinema that explores themes of love, loss, and the struggle for identity under state control, solidifying its place in the annals of queer cinema and offering a feminist perspective of Soviet life.
In one devastating scene, Katya laughs while crying—a genuine somatic response to humiliation. Tanya, in character, calls her a "good little pig." Off-screen, one can imagine Khrzhanovsky smiling at the "truth" of the moment. But whose truth? The truth of Stalinism? Or the truth of a director wielding unchecked authority? We watch them, much like the institute’s scientists
Katya’s journey from a naive believer in love to a woman finding genuine connection with Tanya. Dau's Proposition:
Set within the hyper-realistic, immersive world of "The Institute"—a reconstructed Soviet-era science center—the story follows (Ekaterina Yuspina), a young librarian whose idealistic views on love are repeatedly crushed by a series of hollow affairs with men, including the scientist Dau himself.
Tanya, the older and more cynical of the two, forces Katya to submit to a series of escalating humiliations. She orders her to strip, to crawl on the floor, to simulate sexual acts with food, to become a dog. Katya, oscillating between laughter, shame, and genuine distress, complies. The line between theatrical play-acting and psychological terrorism dissolves within minutes. The camera does not flinch.
Where other DAU films often confront the viewer with raw, documentary-style horror or grand philosophical debates, Katya Tanya distinguishes itself through its use of formal cinematic techniques to craft a portrait of its protagonist’s inner world. The film is perhaps the least "boots-on-the-ground" of the DAU films to date, leaning instead on impressionistic shots and elliptical editing to create a strong, subjective view of Katya’s evolving mental and emotional state. Instead, they endure
"DAU" is a cinematic project that began as an experimental film series directed by Ilya Peregudov, based on the life and work of Soviet physicist Lev Landau. The project evolved into a feature film and a series of shorts, exploring various facets of life within the Soviet scientific community. The initiative is known for its immersive approach to storytelling, delving into themes of science, politics, and human relationships.
While other chapters focus on Soviet physicists or brutal interrogations, Katya Tanya shrinks the totalitarian state down to the size of a communal apartment. The result is a claustrophobic, visceral two-hander that asks a terrifying question: When you remove legal and social consequences from a relationship, does love turn into a dictatorship?
is one of the most distinct chapters in Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel’s monumental, deeply controversial, and avant-garde DAU cinematic project. Clocking in at 1 hour and 43 minutes, this arthouse drama shifts the massive historical simulation away from the overarching narrative of the totalitarian state to explore a deeply personal, intimate, and transgressive story of female subjectivity and forbidden romance in Soviet Russia.
(2020) is a film within the massive, controversial DAU cinematic project directed by Ilya Khrzhanovsky. It focuses on the intimate and eventually forbidden relationship between two women in 1950s Soviet Russia. Plot and Characters
. It focuses on the personal lives of two women within a secretive Soviet research institute. Core Narrative & Themes The film follows
In the oppressive, hyperreal universe of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU , individuality is a luxury, and intimacy is often a transaction. Amidst the claustrophobic corridors of a secret Soviet institute, two female figures—Katya and Tanya—emerge not merely as characters but as emotional barometers for the system’s decay. While the project is vast and often deliberately inscrutable, the relationship between these two women reveals the central tension of the DAU experiment: the struggle between performance and authenticity, complicity and rebellion.