DAU review: Ilya Krzhanovsky’s epic Soviet project zeroes in on physicist Lev Landau

Ilya Krzhanovsky’s monumental and deeply unconventional “Dau” project, an expansive multimedia undertaking that has consumed two decades and significant financial resources, has now arrived at its intended core: a film focusing on the life and work of the brilliant, yet troubled, Soviet physicist Lev Landau. This latest iteration, presented at the Venice Film Festival, is described as a more conventionally conceived biopic, representing the feature that Krzhanovsky originally envisioned before the “creative Big Bang” that led to the sprawling “Dau” multimedia universe. The “Dau” project, which ambitiously spans the tumultuous period from the 1920s through the postwar and Cold War eras of the Soviet Union, delves into the complex persona of Landau, a Nobel laureate whose groundbreaking contributions to quantum mechanics and solid-state physics profoundly shaped 20th-century science.

Krzhanovsky’s “Dau” narrative takes Landau’s theoretical endorsement of free love and extrapolates it into a visceral exploration of dissolute sex addiction, a theme that permeates the entire project. This intense focus on carnal indulgence is juxtaposed with the scientist’s profound self-questioning, his obsessive pursuit of his own genius, and an underlying sense of profound loneliness. The project is characterized by its “authentically mad, obsessively sexual, and spectacularly pessimistic” tone, which Krzhanovsky attempts to imbue with a classical Hellenic distinction by fictionalizing a Greek background for his enigmatic protagonist. While it would be speculative to draw direct parallels, the sheer scale and personal investment required for such a long-term, deeply immersive artistic endeavor suggest a powerful personal connection for the director.

The comparison to Christopher Nolan’s meticulous approach to “Oppenheimer” highlights the immense scope of “Dau.” Nolan, while making his biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, could have hypothetically spent two decades reconstructing Los Alamos and producing numerous sidebar films about ancillary figures before finally focusing on the central narrative. Krzhanovsky’s “Dau” mirrors this hypothetical scenario, having already released offshoot films such as “DAU. Natasha,” which explored different facets of the project and its characters, before now circling back to the primary subject. The “Dau” project has been vividly described as a “crazed Soviet inferno” that is now reaching its central figure, a “genius maudit” whose intellectual brilliance and personal complexities serve as the inspiration for this vast cinematic and artistic exploration. The sheer scale of the “Dau” project, involving the detailed reconstruction of environments and the production of numerous films, aims to create an immersive experience that delves into themes of genius, isolation, and extreme human experience, setting it apart in contemporary cinema.