{"id":5677,"date":"2026-08-20T16:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5677"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:21:14","slug":"dau-director-defends-film-after-ukraine-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5677","title":{"rendered":"\u2018DAU\u2019 Director Defends Film After Ukraine Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
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\n\tDirector Ilya Khrzhanovsky is defending his upcoming film DAU<\/em> against attacks by the government of Ukraine that it represents Russian propaganda and should not be screened at the Venice Film Festival next month. <\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Outer Banks\u2019 Star Madelyn Cline Is Entering Uncharted Waters<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tKhrzhanovsky took to Facebook on Thursday to post a point-by-point rebuttal of the criticism of his film and claims linking him, the film\u2019s financiers, and DAU<\/em> actor Teodor Currentzis to Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDAU<\/em> is not a Russian film and does not represent Russia at the Venice Film Festival,\u201d Khrzhanovsky writes, noting that he is \u201cnot a citizen of the Russian Federation\u201d having renounced his Russian citizenship \u201cin protest against the state policy of the Russian Federation and its war against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis film, Khrzhanovsky said, \u201cis not an instrument of Russian state cultural policy. It is an artistic statement about the nature of totalitarian evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 3-hour DAU<\/em> film is the latest in a series of movies, art installations and video projects created by Khrzhanovsky using material filmed over three years from 2008 to 2011 on a closed set in Kharkiv, Ukraine. <\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this week, the Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy issued a joint statement criticizing the Venice festival for including DAU<\/em> in its line-up. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt the time when Russia is continuing its war of aggression against Ukraine, systematically destroying cities, cultural heritage and national identity,\u201d the statement reads, \u201coffering one of the world\u2019s most prestigious cultural platforms to a project linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence sends a deeply worrying signal.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe statement goes on to list the film\u2019s alleged connections to Putin\u2019s Russia, including Khrzhanovsky\u2019s citizenship, and that of DAU<\/em> lead actor Teodor Currentzis, and its connection to Sergei Adoniev, a Russian business man who has been sanctioned by Ukraine and the U.S. <\/p>\n

\n\tVenice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera took to Instagram on Wednesday to clap back at those allegations and to defend his decision to include DAU<\/em> at this year\u2019s festival. In his post, Barbera describes Khrzhanovsky as \u201ca Russian dissident who ended up on the regime\u2019s blacklist as a terrorist and enemy of the state \u2014 a director who, from the very beginning, has taken a stand against the Russian invasion of Ukraine\u201d. He called the attacks on DAU<\/em> an \u201cinexplicable smear campaign against a film that its accusers have evidently not even seen yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Yellowjackets\u2019 Announces Final Season Premiere Date With Help From Kurt Loder<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe DAU project, initially conceived as a biopic of the Nobel Prize-winning Soviet scientist Lev Landau (nicknamed Dau), became a massive immersive installation. Hundreds of cast members, actors and non-actors, lived on the closed set, in costume and in character, isolated from the outside world during filming. From the hundreds of hours of footage shot, Khrzhanovsky has produced several feature films. DAU. Natasha<\/em>, screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020, winning a Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution for cinematographer J\u00fcrgen J\u00fcrges.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his Facebook post, Khrzhanovsky refutes or qualifies the various accusations made against him and his film. Adoniev, he says, was a financier of the broader artistic \ud835\ude0b\ud835\ude08\ud835\ude1c project but \u201chis financing ended completely in 2019 and he has had no financial relationship with the project since then. He did not finance the completion of the film selected for the competition of the Venice Film Festival.\u201d Adoniev\u2019s involvement, the director adds, was prior to his being sanctioned by the U.S. or Ukraine government. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe filming of the DAU project in Ukraine, writes Khrzhanovsky, took place before the Russian invasion of the country. His own position on Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine \u201chas been and remains unequivocal,\u201d he writes. \u201cI publicly supported Ukraine long before the full-scale invasion. Following the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, I signed an open letter by Russian filmmakers in support of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA stickier point is DAU<\/em> lead actor Theodor Currentzis. A well-known Greek conductor, Currentzis took on Russian citizenship in 2014. Currentzis has never publicly supported Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, but he has not publicly condemned it either. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHowever one may judge his decision not to make such statements [against the war], judging a person on the basis of the citizenship they hold \u2014 and, even more so, using citizenship acquired years after most of the filming as evidence of the film\u2019s current connection to the Russian state \u2014 is not justified,\u201d writes Khrzhanovsky.<\/p>\n

\n\tGiven what he characterized as his long and enduring support for Ukraine, Khrzhanovsky said the attempt to frame him and his film as supporting the Russian state or its war against Ukraine was \u201cespecially painful for me.\u201d He said he understood the need, \u201cduring wartime, to scrutinize the sources of financing of cultural projects, political connections, and possible instruments of Russian influence. [But] that is precisely why standards of factual accuracy must be particularly high.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHis movie, he said, \u201cshould not be prematurely judged on the basis of false associations, distorted chronology, or assumptions that contradict the documented history of the project. I have been and remain opposed to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine and to the political system that made this war possible.
Opposing totalitarianism also means defending factual truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDAU<\/em> will screen in competition at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, which runs Sept. 2-12. <\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Sons of Anarchy\u2019 Creator Kurt Sutter Reacts to Spinoff: \u201cI\u2019m Not Involved, Nor Should I Be\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ilya Khrzhanovsky says attacks on his film, including from the Ukraine Ministry of Culture, are factually wrong and misrepresent the movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3561,2,1668],"class_list":["post-5677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-dau","tag-international","tag-venice-2026"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018DAU\u2019 Director Defends Film After Ukraine Backlash - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5677\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018DAU\u2019 Director Defends Film After Ukraine Backlash - 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