Director-artist Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, best known for the “DAU” project, will be the subject of the “Tribute To” program at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival, with a curated retrospective of his films.
Khrzhanovskiy was born in Russia and graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), but last year, the Russian Ministry of Justice added him to its list of foreign agents, and he subsequently renounced his Russian citizenship.
His debut feature film “4” won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2005, and the best director awards in Buenos Aires and Athens. The film was screened at over 50 festivals and distributed worldwide.
Since 2006, he has been working on “DAU,” a multidisciplinary project at the intersection of film, art and anthropology. In 2006, “DAU” was selected for the Atelier of the Festival de Cannes. He shot 700 hours of footage, from which 14 feature films, three TV series, video performances and scientific films were created. The films premiered in Paris in 2019, where an immersive experience was created with the recreation of the “DAU” institute at the Centre Pompidou. Many renowned artists and actors participated in the project, including Willem Dafoe, Marina Abramović and Brian Eno.
The films “DAU. Natasha” and “DAU. Degeneration” were included in the official program of the Berlin Film Festival in 2020. “DAU. Natasha” won the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution to cinematography, and “DAU. Degeneration” was acclaimed by international critics. Both films also won other awards at festivals worldwide.
Since 2020, Khrzhanovskiy has been the artistic director of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, the largest Holocaust research and memorial center in Eastern Europe. As a co-producer, he participated in the award-winning documentaries “Babi Yar. Context” (2021) and “The Kiev Trial” (2022) by Sergei Loznitsa. He participated in the installation of memorial installations in Babi Yar, including “Mirror Field” (2020), “Tree” (2021), and the wooden synagogue “Place for Reflection” (2021).
In 2022, Khrzhanovskiy received the Master Award at the Yerevan Film Festival for outstanding achievement in film art.
This year, he co-founded IP Filmworks with Philippe Bober in France. He is currently working on new media and art projects, exploring new forms in contemporary art and cinematography.
The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from Aug. 15 to 22.
