Welcome to Chechnya

"Welcome to Chechnya" (2020 release; 107 min.) is a documentary about the LGBT-bashing/LGBT-hunting that goes on in the Russian republic of Chechnya (and condoned by the Kremlin). As the movie opens, we are reminded that for people appearing in the film who are fearing for their lives, their faces have been "digitally disguised". We then meet David Isteev, the director of the Russian LGBT Network. He is on the phone with Anya, a 21 yr. old in Chechnya who informs him (and us) that her uncle has figured out she is lesbian, and now threatens to disclose this to her father, unless she agrees to have sex with him. David agrees to set up an intervention to get her out of Chechnya and Russia. We then step back and come to understand that rumors of mass detentions of gays started in 2017 when during a drug raid, the Chechnyan cops happen to stumble on gay materials on some guy's cell phone, and how the gay-hunting spread from there. At this point we are 10 tense minutes into the movie...

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from award-winning writer-director David France. Here he and his production team go clandestine in Chechnya and other places in Russia (mostly Moscow) to witness first hand what is going on in the LGTB community there, and how the Russian LGTB Network tries, against all odds and risking life and limb (literally) under unimaginable pressure, to help the prosecuted. The documentary follows in particular the fate of the aforementioned Anya, as well as the fate of 30 yr. old Grisha, whose life of not only himself but also his entire family, is at stake (in the real sense of the word). PLEASE NOTE: the documentary includes video footage that the Russian LGTB activists have intercepted, showing various LGTB men and women being beaten, kicked, assaulted, and worse. It is almost too much to watch, but of course drives the point home that the LGTB bashing and hunting in Chechnya is very real and ongoing. My heart goes out to the LGTB community there, of course. The real heroes (for me anyway) are the people manning the Russian LGTB Network, doing miracle work, even as they know and understand that indeed the entire might of the Russian state is working against them. It makes for riveting, shocking, and yes, heartbreaking, watching. The documentary also dryly notes that Canada has accepted a number of Chechnyan LGTB refugees on humanitarian grounds, whereas the Trump administration has not accepted a single one. Not one! For shame.

"Welcome to Chechnya" premiered at this year's Sundance film festival (ah yes, the pre-COVID-19 days!) to immediate acclaim, and earlier this week it premiered on HBO, where I saw this. There is good reason why this film is currently rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. If you have any interest in understanding what is going on in Chechnya and Russia for the LGTB community, or simply love a profound human interest story, I'd readily suggest you check this out on HBO On Demand or other streaming services, and draw your own conclusion.

... have been around for a long time but fortunately the people of the world have been able to learn, discover and evolve to recognise the power of diversity and to remove most prejudices and hatred from their cultures - especially over the last 50 years. How sad that there remain isolated examples of evil and that there are those who seek to build a culture on it. No different to the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s and it should be dealt with as such. Excellent and informative documentary highlights one such example.

Tremendous documentary by David France that shows us the actions of the NGO Russian LGTB Network.

A strong complaint about the discriminatory, repressive and criminal policy of the Chechen government against its LGBTQ population, involving their families as repressive agents, in a country whose president, the confessed homophobe Kadyrov, has the explicit support of Putin.

Review:

Chechnya is a small, Muslim-majority republic located in the North Caucasus that is part of the Russian Federation. Its president, Ramzan Kadyrov, a millionaire who governs it in an autocratic way with the frank support of Putin, carries out a violent homo and transphobic policy, imprisoning and torturing homosexual men and women so that they "expose" others. Some were assassinated by the government - since they did not survive the torture - and most are returned to their families so that they "take care of them", that is, for them to kill them themselves. On the other hand, there are several denounced by their own families.

This tremendous documentary follows the risky task of some members of the Russian LGTB Network, an NGO (linked to others from abroad) dedicated to rescuing Chechen homosexuals by surreptitiously removing them from that country, housing them in different secret shelters (one of them in Moscow) and manage their emigration to countries that host them as refugees. The cases dealt with are mainly two: one of a Russian who made an occasional visit to Grozny, the Chechen capital and was arrested and tortured, and another of a lesbian Chechen girl extorted by her uncle.

Let us clarify that Russia itself is not a safe haven for rescued homosexuals either.

To preserve the identity of the refugees, their families and partners, the documentary uses the deepfake technique, where the face and voice of some of them are digitally replaced by the faces and voices of actors.

We observe what daily life is like in the shelters, moving family scenes and, in many moments, the story is tense with scenes worthy of a spy movie. In addition, very harsh videos of arrests and abuses by the Chechen police forces intercepted by the NGO are inserted.

In sum, this tremendous documentary by David France constitutes a strong denunciation of the discriminatory, repressive and criminal policy of the Chechen government against its homosexual population, in which it involves families as repressive agents, in a country whose president, the confessed homophobe Kadyrov , has the explicit support of Putin.

This is such a beautiful, IMPORTANT, and heartbreaking documentary. Please everyone go see this doc to know what LGBTQ+ people are still going through in the 21st century. And this isn't the case only in Chechnya/Russia, it's similar in many other countries. The violence, abuse, discrimination, and crimes against gay people needs to stop, enough is enough. Although movies like Welcome to Chechnya are so sad and hard to see, I love seeing and recommending them because they reflect the bitter reality, awareness should be spread. Finally, sending love and respect to each and every LGBTQ+ individual/activist in the world.

I've read a bit about Chechnya and the brutality of its regime and recall the stories of its brutal crackdown against LGBT people {stories which rarely make the news now) so I was expecting this doco to be a hard slog. The makers were deft at taking us on the underground railway of the network which saves gay and lesbian people by sneaking them out of Chechnya. We see the best qualities of humanity in the folk who risk so much to help others from being persecuted for being who they are. I was worried there'd be too many descriptions of torture and bashings etc. but they were just enough to give a sense of the horrors being committed. It was disheartening to hear how the people doing good are finding it harder to get asylum for the threatened. It's ad if the world is turning a blind eye. The film presents a forceful argument that persecution of a group in society is an ever present threat when leaders have impunity to express their dictatorial side: looking at you Putin and Trump.