DAU. Katya Tanya is not entertainment. It is a stress test of the viewer’s morality.
[Close up, Handheld Camera] The camera shakes slightly. We see a clipboard. A hand ticks a box aggressively. Katya (Voiceover): "Subject 7 is rejecting the narrative. Pulse is erratic." Tanya (Off-screen): "He’s not rejecting it, Katya. He’s feeling it."
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.
| Character | Actor(s) | Role in Film | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Ekaterina Yuspina (credited as librarian 1942-1947, head of library 1951-1953) | The protagonist, a young librarian navigating the brutal world of Soviet romance and bureaucracy. | | Tanya | Tatyana Polozhiy (credited as journalist, literary editor) | A journalist and Katya's colleague, who becomes her love interest. | | Dau | Teodor Currentzis | The institute's director and a central character in the DAU universe, who has a brief, dismissive affair with Katya. | | Nora | Radmila Shegoleva | Dau's long-suffering wife. | | The First Department | Various actors | The faceless enforcers of state security. | | Supporting Roles | Alexey Trifonov, Dmitry Kaledin, Andrey Losev | Various scientists, department heads, and bureaucrats that populate the institute's oppressive atmosphere. | DAU. Katya Tanya
This article examines DAU. Katya Tanya not just as a piece of cinema, but as an aesthetic object that challenges the viewer's understanding of authenticity, gender politics, and the female experience under a totalitarian lens. 1. The Context: The DAU Project and The Institute
"DAU. Katya Tanya" represents a fascinating intersection of cinema and reality, storytelling and documentation. Through its unique approach to narrative and character development, the film offers viewers a chance to engage with the material on a profound level. As a piece of cinematic art, it challenges conventions and invites reflection on the nature of storytelling and the power of film to capture the human experience.
The film centers on , a young librarian whose idealistic views on love are repeatedly crushed by the harsh realities of Soviet life. [Close up, Handheld Camera] The camera shakes slightly
DAU. Katya Tanya focuses on the relationship between two women, and Tanya , exploring their lives, emotions, and intimacy within the confined, surveilled space of the institute.
Participants lived in a massive, specially constructed set in Kharkiv for years, following 1950s Soviet rules, wearing period clothing, and eating period food.
Oertel's input is what makes "Katya Tanya" unique within the DAU universe. Her focus on intimate, character-driven storytelling provides a sharp contrast to the project's other, more sprawling and brutal films. In an in-depth interview, she discussed how her feminist perspective shaped the film's approach to themes of lesbian intimacy and state violence. Her personal experience as an actor on the set, feeling the weight of the project's immersive reality, informed her empathetic editing and directing style, ensuring Katya's story was told with nuance. Katya (Voiceover): "Subject 7 is rejecting the narrative
Together, Katya and Tanya have become the core of DAU, appearing in many of the project's most memorable episodes. Their on-screen chemistry is undeniable, and their performances have been praised for their naturalism and authenticity.
A glimmer of warmth and tenderness finally emerges when Katya meets Tanya (Tatyana Polozhiy), a journalist who shares her love of literature. In a series of intimate, emotionally frank encounters, the two women find in each other a tenderness and understanding missing from Katya’s other relationships. In the totalitarian, hyper-vigilant environment of the DAU universe, where the state security services (the "First Department") watch every interaction, this burgeoning love is an act of profound, forbidden transgression. What makes the film unique is that Katya’s journey is not merely one of romantic awakening, but a tragic, heroic struggle to carve out a space for authentic feeling in a system built on paranoia and fear.
What makes Katya Tanya so unsettling is not the explicit content—we have seen power games before in cinema (from Last Tango in Paris to The Piano Teacher ). It is the absence of a moral anchor. There is no cut to a horrified observer. There is no soundtrack to tell you how to feel. There is only the relentless, static gaze of the camera.
DAU. Katya Tanya is a 2020 drama film that is part of the massive and controversial DAU project directed by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel. Plot Summary
