It is a good demonstration of how an authoritarian government works. It is too long, but I loved the cenes

'DAU. Natasha', directed by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel, is part of 'DAU ', a project of great ambitions and dimensions, which due to the methods used by the production already provokes heated discussions and controversies. 'DAU' started from the biography of a Russian scientist and the history of a Soviet research institute, and developed into a multimedia and multidisciplinary project for which the producers brought together a number of actors, many non-professionals, for more than two years in the conditions of a 'reality show' that reconstructs the oppressive atmosphere of the Stalinist period. 'DAU. Natasha' is one of the two films offered to the public so far in this project, and can be judged without problems as a stand-alone film. That's what I'm going to do. It is the story of a modest woman in charge of the research institute canteen who is forcibly recruited as a KGB informant. A film of a cruel realism, beautifully acted, and which does not avoid shocking.

Natasha (Natalia Berezhnaya) is about 40 years old, Olga (Olga Shkabarnya) is between 20 and 30 years old, and the two women run the canteen of the research institute led by Professor Blinov (Alexei Blinov). The coincidence of names between the characters and the actors is probably not accidental, because the whole cast in this production seems to be made up of unprofessional actors or beginners. The canteen (well stocked for the communist period) is a micro-cosmos of those who work in the institute whose scientific profile is obscure. We only know that some experiments are being performed on people, soldiers, maybe related to radiation, with the participation of a French scientist (Luc Bigé). The two women do not get along very well with each other, both are lonely, victims of the permanent harassment of the male superiors. Lives are gray, hopeless and dominated by fear. After a party with a lot of drink occasioned by the 'success' of an experiment, Natasha has a one-night stand with Luc. It is not long before the investigator Azhippo (Vladimir Azhippo) appears, blackmails and subjects Natasha to interrogation and torture to force her to become a KGB collaborator. The resistance of the lonely woman is impossible and hopeless.

'DAU. Natasha' is a shocking testimony of the breaking of human dignity in the conditions of dictatorship. It is also a film about loneliness, about human solidarity and its fragility, about the Stockholm syndrome (sympathy between the victim and the torturer). The realization is extremely realistic, well thought out and absolutely credible from a historical and psychological point of view. The film lasts over two hours, although it is not composed of more than about eight scenes, but their length is stylistically justified in the tradition of Russian cinema and psychologically in the feeling of slow and heavy flow of time and of the lives of the characters. The actors do not play the roles but live them, and here, of course, the method used by directors and producers has an influence. I am convinced that this film and the whole 'DAU' project will be discussed a lot in the future.

The acting is amateurish at best, the dialogues shallow and barely interesting, the scenes way too long, the "expirement" redicilous. the shaky camera in combination with subtitles makes it even more unbareable. I didn't even care about the "torture" scene, I just wanted it to be over out of boredom.

I skipped through many scenes, maybe that's why I missed the point. But I doubt there was any.

This amateurish botch winning a major prize is presumably some sign of desparation.