DAU (project)

The project was initially conceived as a biopic of the Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate, Lev Landau (nicknamed Dau). In 2006, the film was co-produced by Philippe Bober and Susanne Marian (Essential Filmproduktion, Germany), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), WDR/Arte (Germany), Arte France Cinema (France), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (Germany), Eurimages, Swedish Film Institute, Film i Väst (Sweden), Hubert Bals Fund (Netherlands), Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, and X Filme Creative Pool Entertainment GmbH (Germany). The funds provided by the Russian Ministry of Culture were returned.[1] The first round of filming took place in Saint Petersburg and Kharkiv. The film's premiere will consist of a number of separate events.

In conjunction with the development of the film, the DAU multimedia project was started. Since 2007, thanks to the collaborative, financial, and ideological support of philanthropist Serguei Adoniev, the project began to take new, unique forms, for which it is now renowned.[2][3][4]

The DAU Institute was built on the site of the former Dynamo Aquatic Stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, occupying 12,000 m². It became the largest film set in Europe[5] and a sort of alternate reality for three years between 2008 and 2011. The project involved scientists, artists, musicians, philosophers, religious figures and mystics, as well as cooks, cleaners, nurses, hairdressers, and secret service agents, all of whom lived and worked at the institute, observing the rules of dynamic historical reconstruction of a period spanning from 1938 to 1968.[2][4]

Cameras recorded the natural behavior of each character in circumstances orchestrated by the director. Everyone, with the exception of Dau (portrayed by Teodor Currentzis), his wife (Radmila Schegoleva), their son (Nikolai Voronov), and Krupitsa, director of the institute from 1938 to 1953 (Anatoly Vasiliev), lived in the institute under their own names. Their biographies were adapted to the new Soviet reality.[4][6] In total, 392,000 people auditioned for the film.[5]

There were two departments at the DAU Institute: the theoretical department, where the actual theoretical physicists worked, and the experimental department, staffed mostly by contemporary artists. Research into the quantum physics concepts of string theory and loop quantum gravity was carried out at the institute. In addition to this, experiments were conducted in less conventional fields, such as orgone energy, teleportation, and superhuman abilities.[5][7][8]

Ilya Khrzhanovsky's original idea of creating a film about Lev Landau has been transformed through the process of filming into a large-scale study of human nature that continues to this day.[3][6] At different stages of the project, contemporary artists Marina Abramović, Carsten Höller, Boris Mikhailov, and Philippe Parreno, among many others, have been involved, as were stage and film directors Peter Sellars, Romeo Castellucci, Anatoly Vasiliev, designers including Rei Kawakubo, musicians Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack) and Brian Eno, and many more.[3][9][10]

True to its immersive nature, the film set operated 24/7, regardless of the shooting schedule. The head camera operator of DAU, Jürgen Jürges, developed a unique lighting system that allowed the crew to shoot without any lighting equipment.[11] In November 2011, the filming process was completed and the location was dismantled, a process which became a part of the plot.[12] Remaining objects, small and large props, artifacts, and costumes were preserved and later reused in other contexts of the project.[13][14]

The filming process captured 700 hours of material in total, from which 14 feature films, 3 series, as well as video performances and scientific films were created.[2][15]

Post-production on the films ended in 2018. The movies were voiced by Gérard Depardieu, Willem Dafoe, Isabelle Adjani, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Charlotte Rampling, Iris Berben, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Katharina Thalbach, Veronica Ferres, Heike Makatsch, Toni Garrn, Lilith Stangenberg, Kathrin Angerer, Palina Rojinski, Vicky Krieps, Jella Haase, Lars Eidinger, Martin Wuttke, Blixa Bargeld, Bela B, Bill Kaulitz, Tom Schilling, Marc Hosemann, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Louis Hofmann, Sven Marquardt, Tahar Rahim, Denis Lavant, Lou de Laâge, Éric Cantona, Pascal Greggory, and Amira Casar.[9] [10]

In 2017 a series of conferences was organized in London to explore the wide range of cultural, social, and political issues raised in DAU. The following conferences took place:

• "Import and export of the Russian revolution: ideological, political and communal exchange." (25–25 February 2017, London School of Economics and Political Science). Some of those who took part in the conference were professors Teodor Shanin, Alexander Etkind, Mark Steinberg, Simon Dixon, John Butler, Erik van Raaij, Viktoria Zhuravleva, and David Wolf.[16][17]
• "The protagonists of political mythology: how do individuals and collectives enter into history?" (25–26 March 2017, House of Commons, Parliament of the United Kingdom, University of Westminster), with the participation of the first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, the first state secretary of Russia Gennady Burbulis, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus Stanislav Shushkevich, UK Ambassador to USSR Sir Roderick Braithwaite, West German Ambassador to USSR Andreas Mayer Landrut, professors Robert Service, Linda Cook, Mark Fenster, and Judith Pallot, and others.[18][19]
• "The experience of extremism: faith, violence and liberation movements." (24–26 May 2017, House of Lords, Parliament of the United Kingdom, London Royal Society), with the participation of the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Sir Michael David Jackson, Representative of the Government of Autonomous Kurdistan His Excellency Karvan Jamal Tahir, Colonel Vladimir Azhippo, Professor James Fallon, members of the international tribunal from the former Yugoslavia Marko Sladojević (Serbia), Amir Cengic (Bosnia), and Davor Laznic (Croatia), former publicity director at Sinn Féin Danny Morrison (Northern Ireland).[18][19]

Films created from the material filmed at the Institute were released for the first time in Paris between January 25 and February 17 2019, with the support of the City Hall of Paris and executive producer Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon.[4][5][20]

The immersion into the world of DAU took place in two Parisian theaters, Théâtre du Châtelet and Théâtre de la Ville, during a period of simultaneous renovation. Moreover, at the Pompidou Centre, the atmosphere of the DAU Institute was recreated with an installation featuring various characters from the project who lived within the artwork 24 hours per day. To visit the DAU project, visitors were required to obtain a DAU-visa.[2][6][21]

Within the theaters, round-the-clock public screenings of the films were accompanied by individual conversations by members of the audience with "active listeners," among whom were priests, pastors, and rabbis, as well as social workers and doctors.[3] Conferences, performances, concerts, and shamanic rituals were held at both theaters.[22] It was impossible to learn about them in advance. Instead of offering a guided experience, the principle of uncertainty and the constant metamorphosis brought visitors into unexpected encounters—a core characteristic of the DAU project.[3] In accordance with this principle and as part of the project, performances by renowned musicians were held incognito, without posters or ads.[23]

During Paris events, Théâtre du Châtelet and Théâtre de la Ville hosted Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna, Jazz Aeterna, and TrigolOS, musicians Mikhail Rudy, Tatiana Grindenko, Vladimir Martynov, Vladimir Tarasov, Leonid Fyodorov, Mikhail Mordvinov, Dmitry Uvarov, Vangelino Currentzis, Marko Nikodievich, and Vladimir Volkov, singer Sergey Starostin, opera singer Ekaterina Shcherbachenko, singer and performer Arca, Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack), and Brian Eno, who developed a bespoke acoustic architecture for DAU. Also, performances of Sasha Waltz and her dance troupe, as well as installations of Romeo Castellucci and Philippe Parreno, took place in different DAU spaces. Writer Jonathan Littell, futurologist Real Miller, professor of physics and string theorist Nikita Nekrasov, writer and social critic Evgeny Morozov, photographer Reza Deghati, biophysicist prof. Sonia Contera, writer Alexander Etkind, and others took part in the DAU conferences in Paris.

According to preliminary estimates, in the period from January 25 to February 17, 2019, around 40,000 people visited DAU project venues in Paris.

Criticism of the project predominantly focused on questions of transparency, work ethics, and respect for the rights of DAU participants. Critical accounts mostly contain references to the testimonies of participants involved for only a short time.[24][4][25] Neither participants nor creators of the DAU material shown at the Paris premiere criticized the project.[26][27][21] Criticism in regards of the filming of children with Down syndrome, in particular, was rejected by the director and the press service of the project.[28] In addition, the project has spawned discussions about the limits of what is permissible in cinema.[29][30][31] The project team has filed a lawsuit in relation to material published by Le Monde,[32] which allegedly quoted some of the participants.

In the future, the project will continue to exist on the DAU Digital platform, available online. The release of the feature film "Dau" is scheduled for the second half of 2019 or first half of 2020, with details to be confirmed.

• Serguei Adoniev – Chief Producer
• Jürgen Jürges – Director of Photography, Lighting Designer
• Manuel Alberto Claro – Saint Petersburg Unit Operator
• Denis Shibanov – Project Art Director
• Boris Shapovalov – Art Director of the Saint Petersburg Unit
• Olga Gurevich – Art Director of the Kharkiv Unit
• Jekaterina Oertel – Make-up Artist
• Maxim Demidenko – Head of Technical and Sound Production Department
• Anastasia Smekalova – Casting Director
• Alexey Slyusarchuk, Vera Levchenko, Inna Shorr – Second Directors at the Site
• Volker Gläser – The Second Camera
• Jörg Gruber – First Assistant Operator, Third Camera
• Michael Siebert – Focus-Puller, First Assistant Operator
• Yevgeny Kravchynia – Art Assistant
• Arina Galantseva – Art Assistant
• Alexander Mordovin – Art Assistant
• Elena Shmakova – Assistant Art Director for Props
• Julia Zelenaya – Assistant Sound Engineer
• Alexandra Timofeeva – Head of the Costume Department, Executive Producer
• Irina Tsvetkova, Elena and Olga Bekritskie, Lyubov Mingazitdinova, Alexandra Smolina - Costume Designers
• Susanne Marian – Producer
• Philippe Bober – Film Producer
• Svetlana Dragayeva – Executive Producer
• Artem Vasiliev – Producer of the Preparation and Filming of the Saint Petersburg and Kharkiv Units
• Daria Sherman – Post-Production Line Producer
• Menelaos Pampoukidis – Visual Effects Supervisor

• Dau (film)
• DAU. Natasha

• DAU project official website