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Dissident Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky, who is at the Venice Film Festival with competition title “DAU” countered claims by Ukrainian officials that the film has Russian state links and took a clear position on the ongoing
war.
“Look, my position about Russia-Ukrainian war has been very clear from the beginning of the war,” he said. “Actually even [from] before the full invasion in 2022, my position was clear. I commented many times,” Khrzhanovsky added.
“The only thing I can wish for is peace and success for the Ukrainian government to succeed in the best possible way, to save the country and to win this war,” the director continued.
Regarding his ties to Sergei Adoniev, the Russian oligarch who originally bankrolled the project, Khrzhanovsky specified that “he was the first financier,” adding: “He financed the ‘DAU’ project from 2008 to 2019 and his generous support was great and very important for the art project,” noting that. at the time Russia was not on any sanction lists. But “Over the past seven years, the project has had a completely different life,” in terms of its financing. He said.
Asked whether he was critical of the film’s lead actor Teodor Currentzis, the Greek-Russian classical conductor who has refused to explicitly criticize Vladimir Putin or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Khrzhanovsky said: “Look, I can criticize myself for things. And I prefer to judge myself for things and try to act and behave in a way how I feel it should be and I try to be connected to my spirit and soul and choices.” But “Some people choose what I don’t like,” he added “And I think everyone is responsible for their own choices.”
Inspired by Soviet physicists who helped develop the atomic bomb, “DAU” follows the life of the titular scientist (Lev Landau, nicknamed Dau) across four decades in the Soviet Union, from 1928 to 1968. The 3-hour-and-15-minute film compiles two decades of work from Russian-born Khrzhanovsky’s “DAU” project, which stretches across the mediums of cinema, television and art. Two films from the project have already been released, “DAU. Degeneration” (2019) and “DAU. Natasha” (2020).
The film’s inclusion in Venice’s competition caused controversy in the lead-up to the festival, with the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture as well as the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy releasing a joint statement. “At the time when Russia is continuing its war of aggression against Ukraine, systematically destroying cities, cultural heritage and national identity, offering one of the world’s most prestigious cultural platforms to a project linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence sends a deeply worrying signal,” the statement said.
In a social media post last month, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera defended his decision to include the film in competition, saying that Khrzhanovsky is “a Russian dissident who ended up on the regime’s blacklist as a terrorist and enemy of the state — a director who, from the very beginning, has taken a stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” He added that critiques are part of an “inexplicable smear campaign against a film that its accusers have evidently not even seen yet.”
Beyond political criticism, “DAU. Natasha” also sparked questions ahead of its premiere at Berlin Film Festival in 2020 about unprofessional and unsafe conditions, especially relating to the treatment of actresses and use of unsimulated violence. Khrzhanovsky and members of his cast, including lead Natalia Berezhnaya, strongly denied these claims.
Maria Nafpliotou, who stars “DAU,” struck a similar note. “There was not a script, there were only some lines and we knew who we were [what characters we were playing],” she said, describing Khrzhanovsky’s unique directorial method. “Ilya sent people into set and we had to react. It reminded me what it means to be an actor, really. I was treated with respect and kindness.”
