Beginning in 2007, filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovskiy staged an ambitious art project that replicated a top-secret research facility and populated their carbon-copy institute with amateur actors. DAU. Natasha is one of the fourteen feature films produced.

The life of Natasha, a canteen worker at the research institute, takes a dramatic turn when she is summoned for a harrowing and humiliating interrogation by the KGB after an illegal affair with a French scientist.

DAU. Natasha’s lifelike scenes have raised international backlash. It brought forward ethical concerns—psychological and physical violence against amateur actors—among Russian film critics during the 2020 Berlinale Competition, where the film won the Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award.

Ilya Khrzhanovskiy (b. 1975, Moscow) is a director and producer. He 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. DAU, his multi-disciplinary project, was premiered in Paris in 2019. DAU. Natasha won Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award at Berlinale in 2020.

Jekaterina Oertel (b. 1966, St. Petersburg) graduated in the Academy of Film and Theatre in Moscow. She was responsible for the make-up and hairstyling for over fifty films and television works, including Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run (1998). Since 2008, she has worked on the DAU project as Head of Make-up and Hairstyling as well as editing director for DAU’s post-production.