Inside ‘DAU,’ the 20-Year Soviet Simulation That Became Cinema’s Strangest Ghost Story
Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky's long-mythologised film project DAU is finally arriving at the Venice Film Festival, two decades after he began building a sealed, fully functioning recreation of a Soviet research institute in Kharkiv, Ukraine. What started in 2006 as a conventional biopic of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Lev Landau, nicknamed "Dau", spiralled into an immersive, controversial experiment in which thousands of participants lived under authentic period conditions for years, generating multiple spin-off films, art installations and persistent allegations of abuse and exploitation.
Participants reportedly wore only 1930s-60s clothing, ate Soviet-style food and were cut off from modern technology, while some former KGB officers played their real-life roles and could detain fellow cast members. Around 700 hours of 35mm footage and 8,000 hours of dialogue were recorded, including a 2011 scene in which the set was set alight by real neo-Nazis, one of whom later died in prison. Khrzhanovsky kept his original biopic footage, shot between 2008 and 2011, in storage for over a decade before finishing the 165-minute "mother film", titled simply DAU, which premieres in competition at Venice this month amid renewed controversy over its Russian origins.
In short
- Ilya Khrzhanovsky's 20-year Soviet simulation film DAU premieres at Venice
- Project involved thousands living under real 1930s-60s Soviet conditions
- Original 2011 footage shelved for years, now finished as a 165-minute film
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters could argue that DAU’s immersive method aimed to create a rare, textured portrait of life inside a Soviet institution, letting performers’ interactions generate material that a conventional scripted film might miss. They might see the scale and long-term commitment as a bold artistic experiment, provided participants understood the conditions and could give meaningful consent.
The case against
Critics could argue that blurring performance and real life in a sealed environment risks exposing participants to coercion, distress or exploitation, especially when authority figures could detain them and allegations of abuse persist. They might also question whether artistic ambition can justify those risks, or whether the resulting work gives adequate weight to the people whose lives and experiences became its material.
Explained simply
Lev Landau was a Soviet physicist who won the Nobel Prize and was known by the nickname “Dau”. Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky began making a film about him in 2006, but the project grew into a recreation of a Soviet research institute in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Thousands of participants took part in the project, living and working in period clothing and surroundings while cameras recorded their interactions. The footage became the basis for a range of films and art works, and the project drew allegations of abuse and exploitation, which have shaped debate about how it was made.
The project also raises questions about the boundaries between acting and real life, and about the treatment of participants in immersive art. Its Russian origins and its setting in Ukraine add further context to how audiences may understand it.
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