Dau. Katya Tanya [ CERTIFIED • 2025 ]

The film centers on and Tanya (Tatiana Polozhy) . Unlike the high-intensity psychological violence depicted in DAU. Natasha , Katya Tanya offers a more contemplative, albeit still tense, look at the emotional lives of these women within a repressive environment.

You will not enjoy That is the wrong verb. You will survive it.

DAU. Katya Tanya (2020) is a feature-length film directed by and Jekaterina Oertel , part of the massive and controversial multi-disciplinary cinema project DAU . Plot Overview DAU. Katya Tanya

(2020) is a feature-length film directed by Jekaterina Oertel and Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, serving as a significant, albeit controversial, entry in the massive DAU cinematic project. The film shifts the project’s focus toward female subjectivity and the forbidden nature of queer relationships within the oppressive framework of a 1950s Soviet research institute. Narrative Plot and Setting

A vertical video series (Reels/TikTok) or a photo carousel with narrative captions. The film centers on and Tanya (Tatiana Polozhy)

The plot of DAU. Katya Tanya is deliberately modest and personal. The film’s central figure is Katya (played by Ekaterina Uspina), a young librarian working at a top-secret Soviet research institute. The narrative initially unfolds in a prologue set in 1942, depicting Katya’s youthful romance with a scientist tragically killed in World War II. A brutal jump cut transports us to 1952, where we find her profoundly altered. The light has disappeared from her face. She moves through the gray, bureaucratic labyrinth of the institute with a weary resignation, engaging in a series of unsatisfying, emotionally barren affairs with various men.

Katya, whose full name is not publicly known, is a Ukrainian actress and artist who has been involved with DAU since its early days. She has become one of the project's most recognizable faces, appearing in numerous episodes and installments. You will not enjoy That is the wrong verb

As we reflect on the story of Katya and Tanya, we are reminded of the complex and dynamic nature of human psychology, the power of social interaction, and the resilience of the human spirit. Their experiences serve as a poignant reminder of the importance of responsible research practices, informed consent, and the need for ongoing discussions about the ethics of scientific inquiry.

The film, which premiered in 2020, is part of the broader DAU universe that often blurs the line between documentary and fiction. The participants, who were not professional actors, were tasked with living in the moment, creating a "real" experience that was then captured by cameras. Katya and Tanya: A Queer Narrative

: Some fans of the project found this installment disappointing, citing a "shoddier" narrative structure and feeling that its critique of totalitarianism was relatively superficial compared to earlier entries like Degeneration .

DAU. Katya Tanya is one of the 14 feature films mined from this radical artistic upheaval. Co-directed by Khrzhanovsky and his long-time collaborator Jekaterina Oertel, and released online on May 15, 2020, this drama offers perhaps the most delicate, melancholic, and psychologically nuanced entry into the entire series. Shifting its gaze from the series' usual focus on sexual brutality and institutional terror, Katya Tanya instead examines the quiet erosion of the human spirit in an atmosphere of total surveillance, seen through the eyes of its two female protagonists.