Khrzhanovsky famously filmed his actors for years, pushing them through real physical and emotional duress to achieve "authentic" reactions. In Katya Tanya , you are not watching acting; you are watching endurance. When Tanya forces Katya to a specific, deeply degrading act (the film’s infamous climax involving a Christmas tree decoration), Katya’s tears are real. Her breakdown is not performed. You become an accomplice simply by watching.
Gritty, observational, psychologically intense. Use close third-person sections alternating between Katya’s sensory-rich, reflective voice and Tanya’s terse, controlled perspective to highlight contrast. DAU. Katya Tanya
In the annals of experimental cinema, few projects have blurred the line between art and exploitation as profoundly as Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU . Emerging from the shadow of the 14-hour-plus original saga, the film is broken into autonomous feature-length chapters. Among the most disturbing and narratively potent of these is DAU. Katya Tanya . DAU — Katya & Tanya Khrzhanovsky famously filmed
Reviews for the film are highly polarized, often reflecting broader feelings toward the entire DAU experiment : Her breakdown is not performed
DAU. Katya Tanya (2020) is a feature-length film directed by and Jekaterina Oertel , part of the massive and controversial multi-disciplinary cinema project DAU . Plot Overview