Per aspera ad astra, or Through Postcinema Toward Cinema, the Reverse Journey of Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU

Abstract

What is DAU? Is it Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s project or films or main character? In order to clarify this complexity, Eugénie Zvonkine proposes “write[ing] DAU for the whole project, Dau for the films and Dau to designate the main character.” Fascinated by the story of a man known by the nickname Dau who professed freedom in private life in contradiction with the political USSR Stalinist regime of fear and terror, young filmmaker Khrzhanovsky decided to adapt this story into a series of films, Dau, which include huge installations, investing, in particular, in the Parisian Théâtre du Chatelet and the Théâtre de la Ville, giving the whole DAU project the fascinating scale of a total artwork.