When Dau. Natasha premiered at the Berlinale less than a moon cycle ago it was unprecedented and an entirely unique film. We now have precedent for the Dau movies and they are the Dau movies themselves. Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s constructed totalitarian nightmare is justifiably taking fire at the moment (over allegations regarding consent and the mistreatment of actors) but if Degeneration is to be the last Dau feature to see the light of day it will be a fitting coda. Yes, Natasha was a startling introduction–as provocative as it was fascinating–but Degeneration is something else: the first Dau epic novel and, perhaps, the first masterpiece of the series.
All in all, the two are scarcely comparable. Natasha had a running time of 146 minutes and took place over the course of a few days in the early ‘50s, with only a spattering of events and characters seen on screen.
All in all, the two are scarcely comparable. Natasha had a running time of 146 minutes and took place over the course of a few days in the early ‘50s, with only a spattering of events and characters seen on screen.
- 3/15/2020
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
It is no use of hyperbole to suggest that Dau. Natasha already looks like one of the most provocative art films ever made. The first strictly theatrical feature to be released from Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s gargantuan, unprecedented Dau project (12 other films were shown at an immersive exhibition in Paris last year), it offers the viewer a kind of Westworld-style trip into a fully realized Stalinist world; a frighteningly believable place where seemingly no act is deemed unfit for the screen. Further installments are alleged to be on their way to Cannes and Venice. May God help us all.
Has a production ever been so shrouded in mystery? Substantial security and non-disclosure agreements have, for the most part, succeeded in keeping a lid on Khrzhanovsky’s universe: a living, working Soviet town (with running water and electricity) that has apparently been in operation for years; populated with hundreds of cast members who live,...
Has a production ever been so shrouded in mystery? Substantial security and non-disclosure agreements have, for the most part, succeeded in keeping a lid on Khrzhanovsky’s universe: a living, working Soviet town (with running water and electricity) that has apparently been in operation for years; populated with hundreds of cast members who live,...
- 2/28/2020
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
“Dau. Natasha” has no credits to explain the wild concept behind its existence, but context is everything. The sophomore feature from Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy follows his well-received 2004 debut “4,” but this is the rare case of an extensive delay that makes complete sense. The movie takes the form of a sexually explicit drama with a jarring Orwellian turn in its final act, and ends with a harrowing sexual assault, but the circumstances behind the scenes deepen the queasy intrigue that has defined the life of this project for more than a dozen years.
Khrzhanovskiy initially set out to make a traditional biopic of Soviet-era physicist Lev Landau, but the production later transformed into an epic installation piece, and eventually the most ambitious filmmaking experiment in history. The filmmaker built a sprawling 42,000-square-foot set in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and cast some 352,000 people to live 24 hours a day in a meticulous recreation of a Soviet science institute.
Khrzhanovskiy initially set out to make a traditional biopic of Soviet-era physicist Lev Landau, but the production later transformed into an epic installation piece, and eventually the most ambitious filmmaking experiment in history. The filmmaker built a sprawling 42,000-square-foot set in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and cast some 352,000 people to live 24 hours a day in a meticulous recreation of a Soviet science institute.
- 2/26/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
There’s a school of critical thought that believes no contextual details or backstory to a film — be they to do with its source material, the circumstances of its production, or its makers’ motivation — should be examined or factored into a review of it, that the final product up on the screen is the only thing that counts. In many cases, that’s correct. It’s an all but impossible approach to take, however, to “Dau. Natasha,” the first theatrical feature to emerge from the mammoth, multidisciplinary Dau art project — equal parts long-term film shoot, performance installation and “Truman Show”-esque anthropological experiment — intended to recreate the experience of everyday life under Stalinist oppression in a vast, fictitious Soviet research institution in the 1950s.
Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel impressively punishing chamber piece is ostensibly self-contained, yet to view it with no knowledge of the Dau project feels tantamount to...
Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel impressively punishing chamber piece is ostensibly self-contained, yet to view it with no knowledge of the Dau project feels tantamount to...
- 2/26/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“Dau. Natasha,” the Russian art project-turned-movie franchise competing at the Berlinale, has triggered headlines in the local and international press over the years due to its epic scale, scenes of graphic violence and anecdotes of an allegedly oppressive work environment for women.
Hours before the film’s premiere at a presser on Wednesday, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, who co-directed “Dau. Natasha” with Jekaterina Oertel, addressed several questions from journalists about claims of harassment and a difficult on-set environment for women, saying that such accusations were “a bit fashionable” and a byproduct of the immersive nature of the film.
“I think what you’re referring to didn’t happen. It’s a rather odd project, so people go digging around, ‘Surely someone raped someone,’” he said. “This project was running for a long time and we worked with a lot of different people, and there were various conflict situations — but they all had...
Hours before the film’s premiere at a presser on Wednesday, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, who co-directed “Dau. Natasha” with Jekaterina Oertel, addressed several questions from journalists about claims of harassment and a difficult on-set environment for women, saying that such accusations were “a bit fashionable” and a byproduct of the immersive nature of the film.
“I think what you’re referring to didn’t happen. It’s a rather odd project, so people go digging around, ‘Surely someone raped someone,’” he said. “This project was running for a long time and we worked with a lot of different people, and there were various conflict situations — but they all had...
- 2/26/2020
- by Rebecca Davis and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlinale lineup already includes films from Jia Zhangke, Matías Piñeiro, and more, but now the competition slate has arrived and it’s an incredibly promising selection. Headed by Carlo Chatrian, it includes many of our most-anticipated films of the year with Christian Petzold’s Undine, Hong Sang-soo’s The Woman Who Ran, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Days, Philippe Garrel’s The Salt of Tears, Abel Ferrara’s Siberia, and Caetano Gotardo & Marco Dutra’s All the Dead Ones, plus recent festival favorites: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always.
Check out the lineup below and return for our coverage.
Competition
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Germany / Netherlands
by Burhan Qurbani
with Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, Richard Fouofié Djimeli
World premiere
Dau. Natasha
Germany / Ukraine / United Kingdom / Russian Federation
by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel
with Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo,...
Check out the lineup below and return for our coverage.
Competition
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Germany / Netherlands
by Burhan Qurbani
with Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, Richard Fouofié Djimeli
World premiere
Dau. Natasha
Germany / Ukraine / United Kingdom / Russian Federation
by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel
with Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo,...
- 1/29/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday morning revealed the main competition lineup and gala selections for festival’s 70th edition.
The festival, which begins February 20, will screen 18 films in competition, including movies from Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, and Eliza Hittman. Six are from female directors.
Among the gala presentations is Pixar’s” Onward.” The Dan Scanlon-helmed urban fantasy includes the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Lena Waithe, and Ali Wong.
Here is the complete list:
Competition
“Berlin Alexanderplatz” (Germany/Netherlands)
Director: Burhan Qurbani
Cast: Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, and Richard Fouofié Djimeli
“Dau. Natasha” (Germany/Ukraine/United Kingdom/Russia)
Directors: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel
Cast: Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo, Alexei Blinov, and Luc Bigé
“Domangchin yeoja” (“The Woman Who Ran”) (South Korea)
Director: Hong Sangsoo
Cast: Kim Minhee,...
The festival, which begins February 20, will screen 18 films in competition, including movies from Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, and Eliza Hittman. Six are from female directors.
Among the gala presentations is Pixar’s” Onward.” The Dan Scanlon-helmed urban fantasy includes the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Lena Waithe, and Ali Wong.
Here is the complete list:
Competition
“Berlin Alexanderplatz” (Germany/Netherlands)
Director: Burhan Qurbani
Cast: Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, and Richard Fouofié Djimeli
“Dau. Natasha” (Germany/Ukraine/United Kingdom/Russia)
Directors: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel
Cast: Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo, Alexei Blinov, and Luc Bigé
“Domangchin yeoja” (“The Woman Who Ran”) (South Korea)
Director: Hong Sangsoo
Cast: Kim Minhee,...
- 1/29/2020
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled its 2020 line-up, with 18 films playing in competition from directors such as Abel Ferrara, Sally Potter, Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, Kelly Reichardt and Eliza Hittman.
Abel Ferrara’s Willem Dafoe starrer “Siberia” is a world premiere in competition, as is Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken.”
Among the U.S. films at the Berlinale, Reichardt’s “First Cow” is an international premiere, and so too is Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
Pixar’s latest animation, “Onward”, also has its international premiere out of competition in the Special Galas section.
Previous Berlin Silver Bear winner Christian Petzold’s latest, “Undine”, world premieres, while Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof, who is not allowed to travel outside his home country, world premieres his latest, “There is No Evil.”
Six out of the 18 films in competition are helmed by female directors.
The 70th edition of the festival...
Abel Ferrara’s Willem Dafoe starrer “Siberia” is a world premiere in competition, as is Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken.”
Among the U.S. films at the Berlinale, Reichardt’s “First Cow” is an international premiere, and so too is Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
Pixar’s latest animation, “Onward”, also has its international premiere out of competition in the Special Galas section.
Previous Berlin Silver Bear winner Christian Petzold’s latest, “Undine”, world premieres, while Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof, who is not allowed to travel outside his home country, world premieres his latest, “There is No Evil.”
Six out of the 18 films in competition are helmed by female directors.
The 70th edition of the festival...
- 1/29/2020
- by Tim Dams
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival revealed its main competition lineup and additional galas this morning at a press conference in the German capital.
The lineup includes new films by Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, Abel Ferrara, Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (who is unable to leave Iran due to a travel ban). Scroll down for the lineup in full.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian confirmed that all main cast and all directors – other than Rasoulof – are due to attend the festival. Guests are set to include Hillary Clinton, who is the subject of Nanette Burstein’s docu-series Hillary; Stateless star and producer Cate Blanchett; Willem Dafoe, star of Abel Ferrara’s Siberia; and Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning and Salma Hayek, the stars of Potter’s drama The Roads Not Taken.
The 18-strong competition lineup includes six films by women directors. Last year, 17 films were selected for the competition with seven helmed by women.
The lineup includes new films by Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, Abel Ferrara, Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (who is unable to leave Iran due to a travel ban). Scroll down for the lineup in full.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian confirmed that all main cast and all directors – other than Rasoulof – are due to attend the festival. Guests are set to include Hillary Clinton, who is the subject of Nanette Burstein’s docu-series Hillary; Stateless star and producer Cate Blanchett; Willem Dafoe, star of Abel Ferrara’s Siberia; and Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning and Salma Hayek, the stars of Potter’s drama The Roads Not Taken.
The 18-strong competition lineup includes six films by women directors. Last year, 17 films were selected for the competition with seven helmed by women.
- 1/29/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.