DAU. Degeneration

[2] The premiere in Paris on 25 January 2019 was in the form of a dozen feature films screened inside an extensive around-the-clock immersive installation.

[6] Set between 1966 and 1968, the film portrays the final years of a secret Soviet scientific institute where boundary-pushing experiments in science and mysticism unravel into chaos.

Following the incapacitation of Lev Landau, the institute's once-renowned chief scientist, the stern and authoritarian KGB general Vladimir Azhippo takes control as director.

Despite these efforts, the institute remains a place of strange and unsettling activity, where experiments on animals, humans, and even infants seek to explore the limits of knowledge and creation.

Amid the decaying institution, younger staff members rebel by embracing Western influences like rock and roll, but their dissent is swiftly met with punishment and conformity.

Azhippo's measures culminate in the arrival of a violent ultra-left-wing group, sponsored by the KGB to restore discipline and eliminate perceived degeneracy.

What begins as intimidation escalates into a full-scale purge, as the neo-communist thugs wreak havoc on the institute, driven by racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies.

From dusk to dawn, the three sites are linked in the sky by the Red Triangle, a light sculpture inspired by the Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century.

[14] Tablet magazine critic Vladislav Davidzon wrote that with the massive immersive theater project "Khrzhanovsky has built a testament to a great film that will never be—and could never be.