Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Jekaterina Oertel

The Profile

Ilya Khrzhanovsky and Jekaterina Oertel are credited as directors of the DAU project. Beginning in 2006 they created a large reconstructed 'DAU Institute' (reported as 12,000 sqm in Ukraine), filmed hundreds of hours (reportedly around 700), and used mostly non-professional participants who lived and worked on the set for extended periods.

DAU. Natasha was presented at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020. The DAU production involved building a large-scale institute where participants lived in role for years; the film includes explicit sexual scenes and sequences portraying KGB interrogation as described in reviews.

The available review treats DAU. Natasha as part of a vast DAU project (begun in 2006) that reconstructed a Soviet research institute. The film is praised for blurring fiction and reality and for producing a claustrophobic atmosphere, while criticized for uneven characterization and explicit, disturbing content. Overall reception in the review is mixed.