Dau. Katya — Tanya

The casting is the first clue that the line between actor and character has been completely demolished.

The project blurs the line between reality and fiction. While the central figure is a fictionalized version of physicist Lev Landau (nicknamed "Dau"), the films focus heavily on the women in the institute, specifically and Tanya . DAU. Katya Tanya

Critically, the DAU project blurs the line between script and reality. The actresses (Radmila Shchegoleva as Katya and Marina Kleshcheva as Tanya) lived within their roles for years. Thus, the on-screen tension between Katya and Tanya feels painfully authentic: it is the friction of two souls trying to retain humanity while their environment demands they become cogs. Their conflicts—over a man, over a moral compromise, over a scrap of dignity—are microcosms of the larger Soviet tragedy. The system does not need to break them physically; it merely needs to ensure they never fully trust one another. The casting is the first clue that the