Dow (movie)

The film’s script is based on the memoirs of Concordia Terentyevna Drobantseva, the wife of Lev Landau, published in 1999 in the form of the book “Academician Landau: How We Lived” ^{[9] [10] [11]} . According to Ilya Khrzhanovsky , in addition to the widow’s memoirs, the script included the facts that he obtained as a result of working with archival documents. “I would like to build a film on the basis of the Rasemon principle: a look at one person from different points of view,” said Khrzhanovsky ^[11] . In May 2006, at the Cannes International Film Festival, the film project was among the 17 most promising world projects in the official program “Ateliers of Directors” ^[5] .

In 2007, it was planned that the film’s budget would be $ 3.5 million ^[10] . At the end of 2008, information appeared that the film’s budget would reach $ 10 million ^[5] . The role of Landau went to Theodor Currentzis ^{[4] [5]} . The role of Kora, the professor’s wife, was claimed by actress Elena Yakovleva ^[4] . Filming began in April 2008 in St. Petersburg ^[5] . The bulk of the filming took place in Kharkov , as well as in Baku , Moscow , London and Copenhagen ^[4] . Many non-professional actors, including political figures of Ukraine, starred in episodic roles.

Since June 2008, casting began on the roles of actors and extras in Kharkov ^[4] . For mass scenes, it was planned to select about 4 thousand people. The selection was carried out by specialists of the Mosfilm company and the OTB television channel ^[12] . A search was also carried out for the props of the 1930s since Lev Landau worked at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology (UFTI) from 1932 to 1937 ^[4] . Props were searched for at home and "second hand". Some things were bought, but most people gave away for free.

A lot of constructivist architecture has been preserved in Kharkov, so part of the Moscow scenes were shot there ^[5] . The words of Manuel Alberto Claro , one of the operators of the picture: “I was very struck by the constructivist buildings. Probably, architecture is the main thing in this city. Very beautiful. There are some things that, if you just look at them, look ugly. But if you shoot them with love, then in the picture they will turn out to be attractive. And I’m sure that we will succeed because it is an attractive city for the film ” ^[3] . Filming was carried out in the historical part of the city: on Sumskaya Street (in the 1930s called Karl Libknecht), Vorobyov Lane, Darwin Street , Krasnoarmeyskaya, Poltava Way (Sverdlova Street), at Railway Station Square , in the Shevchenko Garden near the monument to Kobzar zoo and on Freedom Square (Dzerzhinsky). The university ball was shot in the Constructivist architecture monument at the Culture House of the Southern Railway on Ivanovka ^[5] .

The old buildings of the UFTI between the streets of Gudanov and Lermontovskaya have been preserved, but filming in them is still prohibited due to the privacy regime ^[5] . On Dinamovskaya Street, in place of the outdoor pool of the Dynamo sports complex, abandoned in the early 1990s and bought out by the Avantazh construction company, the largest shooting pavilion with an area of ​​6,000 m² was built in the territory of the former USSR ^{[5] [13]} . In this pavilion, the scenery of the Institute of Physical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , the Moscow apartment of Landau, and the scenery for a number of Moscow film scenes were built ^[13] . To shoot scenes of Lev Landau's arrival in the city on the territory of Kharkov Airport (called Osnova in the 1930s), a full-size model of the huge Soviet seven- engine experimental passenger giant plane K-7 was built . “Flying Gosprom”, as the aircraft was called by its designers, was supposed to be the first airbus in the world, but the car crashed during the first test flights. In the film, it was used as an element of the background. Against this background, a landing Landau descends from the board of a single-engine biplane (An-2). The Landprom premises were used as Landau's apartment ^[5] . When filming on Freedom Square in front of the State Industry Committee, a monument to Lenin, erected in 1963 (demolished in September 2014), was hidden behind the scenery ^[14] .

The shooting took place at 35 sites. About a thousand cubic meters of forest took to build the decoration of houses ^[15] . The film used the retro technique of the Kharkov club Samohod: three trucks, three motorcycles and 10 cars ^[5] . Also, rare Kharkov trams were used in the shootings: a two-axle model “X” passenger carriage and 4 snow-removal cars of the 1930s.

The Kharkov period of filming took about a year - from June 2008 to May 2009, 63 shooting days were planned ^[4] . As of the end of October 2008, about 50 thousand Kharkiv citizens passed the casting, about 1500 people were selected from them ^[16] . On October 17, 2008, the filming began with scenes on the Poltava Way , which in the 30s was called Sverdlov Street ^[5] . About 800 extras were involved here ^[16] .

On October 18, filming began at Railway Station Square. For the filming of these scenes, the facade of the post office building in mid-October 2008 was equipped with the decoration of the huge (three human height) watches that existed since 1928 , and the inscriptions " Post Office " and "Mail", made in " constructivist " black print.

Filming of the film “Dau” officially ended in November 2011 with an explosion of the Institute’s built scenery ^[17] , on the ruins of which a disco was organized.

The premiere of the film was repeatedly postponed.

The performer of the role of Concordia Drobantseva, Radmila Schegoleva, said that under the contract she could not act in other films before the premiere of “Dau”. Thus, she remained unemployed for about 7 years. ^[18]

In the spring, a five-hour version of the painting was shown behind closed doors in Ukraine. Then there was a message that the rental version will be three-hour and will be released in 2019. ^[nineteen]

In July 2018, a movie trailer appeared on dau.xxx ^[20] .

The premiere of the Dau project took place from January 25 to February 17 in Paris. The sites of the project, launched with the support of the City Hall of Paris, were the Chatelet Theater , the capital 's Theater de la Ville and the National Center for the Arts and Culture of Georges Pompidou .

The project was not a film show, but a multi-day spectacle. The audience was offered 13 films and a series of series edited from 700 hours of film footage shot on 35 mm. The longest of the films was designed for nine hours. Also, spectators could take part in seminars, attend concerts, see performances and installations. The Pompidou Center provided the project with two dozen works of the Soviet avant-garde, hung in theaters.

Project Moments

• Initially, they wanted to implement the project in Berlin. Khrzhanovsky planned to recreate and again destroy the famous Berlin Wall. However, the Berlin authorities refused to issue permission to build a mock-up of the wall for security reasons.
• For French viewers, films were voiced by Isabelle Adjani , Fanny Ardant , Isabelle Huppert , Gerard Depardieu .
• The three sites chosen for the Dau were supposed to be connected in the air by laser beams. The symbolic red triangle referred to the aesthetics of the Russian avant-garde of the early XX century.
• Instead of tickets, guests were given “visas” - for 6 hours, 24 hours or “multi-visa” without a time limit ^{[21] [22]} .

• Theodore Currentzis - Leo Landau ^{[5] [23]}
• Radmila Shchegoleva - Concordia Drobantseva ^[24]
• Nikolai Voronov - Igor Landau
• Mikhail Brodsky - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
• Dmitry Gordon - brigade commander
• Peter Listerman - correspondent for the newspaper Pravda
• Mikhail Dobkin - first secretary of the city committee of the Communist Party of Kharkov
• Nestor Shufrich - People's Commissar of Heavy Industry
• Leonid Chernovetsky - episode
• Anatoly Vasiliev - Krupitsa, Director of the Institute

• Script writers: Vladimir Sorokin and Ilya Khrzhanovsky ^[1]
• Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky ^[1]
• Producer: Artyom Vasiliev ^[2]
• Operator: Jurgen Jurges , Manuel Alberto Claro , Volker Glasser ^[3]
• Senior artist-decorator of the picture: Yuri Shvidok ^[3]
• Production designer: Denis Shibanov ^[3]

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  Railway Post Office : as it was then, in 1929

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  Railway Post Office in 2008

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  UFTI : the decoration of the institute, built in b. Dynamo pool, outside

• Official movie website
• What is really happening with the Dow? (03/26/2010)
• How a film by Ilya Khrzhanovsky about the great physicist Landau turned into a Soviet-era park (1)
• How a film by Ilya Khrzhanovsky about the great physicist Landau turned into a Soviet-era park (2)
• RBC-Style: What is the “Dow”, a new Parisian sensation
• “Failure,” “chaos like at the Fyre Festival.” “Dow” is shown in Paris - this is what the foreign press writes about it (January 29, 2019)
• 11 questions about the Dow: What you need to know about the project that caused so many scandals (January 30, 2019)