Ilya Khrzhanovsky

Directing

Ilya Khrzhanovsky

Born 1975-08-11 · Moscow, USSR

Born in Moscow, USSR in 1975, the director and producer graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1998. His debut film, 4, won a Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He began work on DAU, a multi-disciplinary project at the intersection of cinema, art and anthropology, in 2006.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

DAU. Katya Tanya poster
4.3

Katya, a young librarian, believes in love, but her ideals are crushed by reality. After a string of disappointing affairs, Katya finally finds tenderness and understanding in the arms of her colleague, a journalist called Tanya. But then the First Department interferes: the state security services see this relationship as unacceptable for a Soviet woman.

DAU. Katya Tanya

2020

DAU. Katya Tanya poster
4.3

Katya, a young librarian, believes in love, but her ideals are crushed by reality. After a string of disappointing affairs, Katya finally finds tenderness and understanding in the arms of her colleague, a journalist called Tanya. But then the First Department interferes: the state security services see this relationship as unacceptable for a Soviet woman.

DAU. Katya Tanya

2020

DAU. Katya Tanya poster
4.3

Katya, a young librarian, believes in love, but her ideals are crushed by reality. After a string of disappointing affairs, Katya finally finds tenderness and understanding in the arms of her colleague, a journalist called Tanya. But then the First Department interferes: the state security services see this relationship as unacceptable for a Soviet woman.

DAU. Katya Tanya

2020

DAU poster
NR

Inspired by the life of Soviet physicists who created the atomic bomb, DAU tells the story of a brilliant Greek-born physicist living in the USSR from 1928 to 1968. Driven to understand the laws of the universe, Dau is soon forced to use his genius in service of the state and help create the deadliest weapon in history. In a secret research institute, everyday life is shaped by scientific dominance, power, surveillance and privilege. Increasingly stripped of his autonomy, Dau attempts to find freedom and happiness outside his marriage through an endless succession of affairs, ultimately losing both himself and his ability to love. Spanning four transformative decades, DAU is both an intimate portrait of one man and a monumental fresco of a society shaped by violence and ideology. It is a saga about the search for happiness, the price of freedom, and the countless everyday compromises that quietly shape both a human destiny and the course of history.

DAU

2026

DAU poster
NR

Inspired by the life of Soviet physicists who created the atomic bomb, DAU tells the story of a brilliant Greek-born physicist living in the USSR from 1928 to 1968. Driven to understand the laws of the universe, Dau is soon forced to use his genius in service of the state and help create the deadliest weapon in history. In a secret research institute, everyday life is shaped by scientific dominance, power, surveillance and privilege. Increasingly stripped of his autonomy, Dau attempts to find freedom and happiness outside his marriage through an endless succession of affairs, ultimately losing both himself and his ability to love. Spanning four transformative decades, DAU is both an intimate portrait of one man and a monumental fresco of a society shaped by violence and ideology. It is a saga about the search for happiness, the price of freedom, and the countless everyday compromises that quietly shape both a human destiny and the course of history.

DAU

2026

DAU. Nikita Tanya poster
3.4

Within the top secret Institute of Physics Problems, the scientist Nikita Nekrasov is visited by his wife and small children. While away from his family the physicist has managed to fall in love with other women. In open conversations with his spouse – in the bedroom, the dining room, and while out walking – he attempts to convince her of the legitimacy of polygamous relationships, and to test the limits of her unconditional love.

DAU. Nikita Tanya

2020

DAU. Nikita Tanya poster
3.4

Within the top secret Institute of Physics Problems, the scientist Nikita Nekrasov is visited by his wife and small children. While away from his family the physicist has managed to fall in love with other women. In open conversations with his spouse – in the bedroom, the dining room, and while out walking – he attempts to convince her of the legitimacy of polygamous relationships, and to test the limits of her unconditional love.

DAU. Nikita Tanya

2020

DAU. Nikita Tanya poster
3.4

Within the top secret Institute of Physics Problems, the scientist Nikita Nekrasov is visited by his wife and small children. While away from his family the physicist has managed to fall in love with other women. In open conversations with his spouse – in the bedroom, the dining room, and while out walking – he attempts to convince her of the legitimacy of polygamous relationships, and to test the limits of her unconditional love.

DAU. Nikita Tanya

2020

DAU. Natasha poster
5.6

Natasha runs the canteen at a secret 1950s Soviet research institute. This is the beating heart of the DAU universe, everyone drops in here: the institute's employees, scientists and visiting foreign guests. Natasha's world is a small one, split between the demands of the canteen during the day and alcohol fuelled nights with her younger colleague Olga, during which the two confide their hopes of romance and for a different future. At a party one evening Natasha becomes close to a visiting French scientist Luc Bige and the two sleep together. The following day her life takes a dramatic turn when she is summoned to an interrogation by the KGB's General Vladimir Azhippo who questions the nature of her relationship with the foreign guest.

DAU. Natasha

2020

DAU. Natasha poster
5.6

Natasha runs the canteen at a secret 1950s Soviet research institute. This is the beating heart of the DAU universe, everyone drops in here: the institute's employees, scientists and visiting foreign guests. Natasha's world is a small one, split between the demands of the canteen during the day and alcohol fuelled nights with her younger colleague Olga, during which the two confide their hopes of romance and for a different future. At a party one evening Natasha becomes close to a visiting French scientist Luc Bige and the two sleep together. The following day her life takes a dramatic turn when she is summoned to an interrogation by the KGB's General Vladimir Azhippo who questions the nature of her relationship with the foreign guest.

DAU. Natasha

2020

4 poster
5.3

Two men and a woman happen to meet in a bar. We learn from their conversations both the intriguing and banal details of their lives. But is anyone really telling the truth?

4

2005

DAU. Regeneration poster
NR

A mathematician in a secret Soviet research Institute believes that ayahuasca is the key to unlocking all the potential of the quantum universe, but its nightmarish visions also foreshadow his tragic demise.

DAU. Regeneration

DAU. Regeneration poster
NR

A mathematician in a secret Soviet research Institute believes that ayahuasca is the key to unlocking all the potential of the quantum universe, but its nightmarish visions also foreshadow his tragic demise.

DAU. Regeneration

DAU. New Man poster
3.3

Maxim and his comrades-in-arms are participating in top-secret experiments into the creation of a new man. The employees of the secret Institute are characterised by everything Maxim detests: alcoholism, depravity, weak will, loss of ideals, and lack of faith in the future. Vika, one of the waitresses in the Institute's cafeteria, falls in love with the young communist, though she is scared by his fascination with eugenics and his violent tendencies. Vika hopes that her passion and tenderness will soften Maxim, while the state security agents keep a watchful eye on their developing relationship.

DAU. New Man

2020

DAU. New Man poster
3.3

Maxim and his comrades-in-arms are participating in top-secret experiments into the creation of a new man. The employees of the secret Institute are characterised by everything Maxim detests: alcoholism, depravity, weak will, loss of ideals, and lack of faith in the future. Vika, one of the waitresses in the Institute's cafeteria, falls in love with the young communist, though she is scared by his fascination with eugenics and his violent tendencies. Vika hopes that her passion and tenderness will soften Maxim, while the state security agents keep a watchful eye on their developing relationship.

DAU. New Man

2020

DAU. Nora Son poster
6.0

Alienated from the rest of the scientific Institute in which they live, a lonely housewife and her teenage son break the ultimate taboo, with only their submissive maid to bear witness.

DAU. Nora Son

2020

DAU. Nora Son poster
6.0

Alienated from the rest of the scientific Institute in which they live, a lonely housewife and her teenage son break the ultimate taboo, with only their submissive maid to bear witness.

DAU. Nora Son

2020

DAU. Sasha Valera poster
4.0

Sasha, a young janitor, notices a certain softness and kindness in an older janitor. In a small, secluded room, away from their colleagues, the two men waver between resisting and giving in to their feelings and desires, walking a tightrope between violent tendencies and a need for tenderness.

DAU. Sasha Valera

2020

DAU. Sasha Valera poster
4.0

Sasha, a young janitor, notices a certain softness and kindness in an older janitor. In a small, secluded room, away from their colleagues, the two men waver between resisting and giving in to their feelings and desires, walking a tightrope between violent tendencies and a need for tenderness.

DAU. Sasha Valera

2020

DAU. Conformists poster
NR

Two scientists grow old and weary together in a secret Soviet Institute, their unconventional friendship the only consistency in a lifetime of personal and professional disappointments.

DAU. Conformists

2020

DAU. Conformists poster
NR

Two scientists grow old and weary together in a secret Soviet Institute, their unconventional friendship the only consistency in a lifetime of personal and professional disappointments.

DAU. Conformists

2020

DAU. String Theory poster
2.8

Nikita Nekrasov is a scientist, a theoretical physicist who studies our world and other possible worlds. He refuses to make a choice between mathematics and physics, between one woman and another, as he ponders the existence of the multi-universe. At scientific conferences, attended by eminent foreign scientists and a rising younger generation of physicists alike, Nekrasov gets carried away debating the beauty of string theory. He attempts to explain to all of his women – Katya, the librarian, Zoya, the scientific secretary, Svetalana, the head of department – about the theory of his own polygamy, and the possibility of having enough feelings to satisfy everyone.

DAU. String Theory

2020

DAU. String Theory poster
2.8

Nikita Nekrasov is a scientist, a theoretical physicist who studies our world and other possible worlds. He refuses to make a choice between mathematics and physics, between one woman and another, as he ponders the existence of the multi-universe. At scientific conferences, attended by eminent foreign scientists and a rising younger generation of physicists alike, Nekrasov gets carried away debating the beauty of string theory. He attempts to explain to all of his women – Katya, the librarian, Zoya, the scientific secretary, Svetalana, the head of department – about the theory of his own polygamy, and the possibility of having enough feelings to satisfy everyone.

DAU. String Theory

2020

DAU. String Theory poster
2.8

Nikita Nekrasov is a scientist, a theoretical physicist who studies our world and other possible worlds. He refuses to make a choice between mathematics and physics, between one woman and another, as he ponders the existence of the multi-universe. At scientific conferences, attended by eminent foreign scientists and a rising younger generation of physicists alike, Nekrasov gets carried away debating the beauty of string theory. He attempts to explain to all of his women – Katya, the librarian, Zoya, the scientific secretary, Svetalana, the head of department – about the theory of his own polygamy, and the possibility of having enough feelings to satisfy everyone.

DAU. String Theory

2020