Overview
- The film DAU had its Venice Film Festival competition premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, drawing intense scrutiny from Ukrainian officials who said the project is linked to Russian state networks and should not be showcased while the war continues.
- Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky, who renounced Russian citizenship in 2024 and says he opposes the invasion, told reporters he hopes for Ukraine’s success and acknowledged that oligarch Sergei Adoniev financed the project from 2008 to 2019 while saying the film’s funding changed over the past seven years.
- Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera defended the selection and described Khrzhanovsky as a dissident, arguing the festival must judge the work on artistic grounds rather than political pressure.
- The DAU project’s two-decade, immersive production—including a full-scale Kharkiv set where extras lived in character—has a history of allegations about unsafe and abusive working conditions that the director and cast have denied, and early critical response to the Venice feature has been mixed.
- Beyond the premiere, the episode raises practical questions for festivals about vetting long-running projects: who funded them, how production methods treated participants, and how showcasing contested works can affect cultural diplomacy during an active international conflict.