DAU. Degeneration (2020) Spoiler-Free Summary – What It's About

In a hidden corner of the Soviet Union, a secret institute operates between 1966 and 1968, where the boundaries of science and mysticism blur into a maze of unsettling experiments. Researchers probe the limits of creation on animals, humans, and even infants, while an undercurrent of occult rituals infuses their work with a strange, almost ritualistic intensity. The atmosphere is a cold, fluorescent‑lit labyrinth that feels both rigorously clinical and eerily ceremonial, inviting curiosity and dread in equal measure.

When the famed chief scientist Lev Landau is rendered incapable, the institute falls under the iron fist of Vladimir Azhippo, a high‑ranking KGB general appointed as director. Azhippo brings an authoritarian order, seeking to suppress the permissive culture that once defined the laboratory’s daily life. His presence creates a stark contrast to the lingering debauchery of the older scientists and the restless energy of younger staff who cling to Western sounds like rock‑and‑roll as an act of quiet defiance. The tension between Azhippo’s strict discipline and the institute’s lingering aura of reckless curiosity fuels a palpable undercurrent of unease.

Amid this fragile equilibrium, an extremist right‑wing faction slips into the institute, disguising themselves as test subjects. Their arrival hints at a deeper, ideological clash that threatens to upend the already fragile balance of power and purpose within the research complex. The institute becomes a crucible where hidden agendas, conflicting loyalties, and the pursuit of an impossible ideal collide, casting a shadow over every whispered conversation and hushed experiment. The result is a lingering sense that the very walls may soon echo with forces far more dangerous than the science they were built to protect.