Commentaires des utilisateurs

A troubling and powerful documentary, Welcome to Chechnya depicts the cruel and terrifying reality that people in the LGBTQ community face in the area. Through the united efforts of remarkably brave individuals, a few fortunate souls escape to more enlightened areas of the world. But not everyone is so lucky. The fight continues, and the Russian government continues to deny that the atrocities are taking place. Brace yourself before watching this one.

... 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.

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.

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 watched with tears in my eyes the whole time ! Shows how many people cant love openly but war openly and somehow the love will corrupt a society oppose to war and violence .. shout out to the people who fight for others freedom !!!!

Russia is a dangerous place. I live here so I can say it. And this film tells a small part of all the horrors that a lot of us see everyday: from total poverty when people literaly has nothing to eat, and alkoholism, domestic violence and police violence. And all such problems seem to be solvable but the most horrible truth is that all these happen becasuse of the government which are ex-communists and criminals who usurped power in 90s. This film will show you a little part. Bet, the next doc. you gotta watch (due to the anti-police protests in USA and other countries) is the situation about the police violence here. "Welcome to Chechnya" contains some part of the whole situation. But police violence happens all over the country in such scales it's hard to imagine!

I usually don't write reviews, but for the documentary 'Welcome to Chechnya' I will make an exception. Instead of going into detail about the content of this documentary -as a review is supposed to do- I would like to refer to the numerous, other -undoubtedly better- reviews, that do. I however would just want to ask you to watch this documentary and cast your own judgement, for this documentary has stirred something in me, that few other documentaries have done. Thank you.

Asked about the state sponsored brutality towards gay people, the monstrous president of Chechnya replies "There are no gays here. The gays have made up the stories. Please, take our gays away from us!" It's truly shocking. But nonetheless, this documentary, about the attempts of activists to protect those threatened, could have done with some editing. Their struggle might be heroic; but the film mostly depicts people sitting around in safe houses, not doing much as they wait for a chance of exit. Perhaps to protect their own safety, we hear relatively little of their life stories; we can logically sympathise with their plight, but the film overall is short of both narrative, and of broader political context.

"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.

It is difficult to write a review about this film. I will give no spoilers except to offer one image. A man is being tortured. A rat is put upon his back, and the rat is covered by a hot pot. The rat caught starts eating its way into the man's back. Some people have died this way. This is a claim made by someone who has been tortured. People disappear. One is well known. Chechnya is part of Russia. I have no opinions. It is dangerous to have opinions. The BBC was brave in showing the film, but my single comment is that it would have perhaps reached more people on its main channel, BBC 1. A documentary that shows love and bravery in equal measure.

At times this is quite an harrowing documentary to watch as the intimate style of photography illustrates well the persecution of homosexuality in the breakaway eponymous Russian Republic. With President Putin's administration in Moscow denying any systematic abuse of these people, it's left to the local bully-boy governor Ramzan Kadyrov to deny that there are any gay folks in Chechnya and if there are, then they are diluting the pure bloodlines and out to get out. The methods to which the thugs will go to attack their quarry are quite inventive. They use social media to find a victim then use their own contacts and chats to find others - all with a view to beating them to within an inch of their lives then dumping the traumatised and battered people with stark warnings to leave. The narrative here shows the efforts made by various bodies trying to help, but who are themselves facing at best indifference and at worst downright hostility from the national authorities whose complicity in this "cleansing" is only very thinly disguised. The sense of peril faced by these people is well presented and the fact that many have their faces pixellated does bring home the real dangers faced from a vigilante element of society that cares not remotely for any human rights or liberties. It's one of those irrational hatreds that's been drummed into them and that sums up the archetypal bully perfectly. The fleeing characters involved are fearful and terrified half the time, but that doesn't mean that they are going to give up their fight. Even when faced with brutality, they are still determined to serve for equality and freedom under the law. Thing is, those in power simply alter or blur the law to make it even harder for them to achieve basic safety let alone justice. Not an easy watch, but well worth it.

No chechens in a whole movie, i'm dissapointed. I was waiting for movie about chechen LGBT community, but there is only russians. Main character is a russian gey who wasn't even hiding his face in real life but in the movie they did hide his face... wierd. Lowquality nonsense

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.

It always gets me when people 'put' films in with hollywood formula flicks.. There are times I sit to watch a movie and I realize it's just not the time/mood to watch, it does make all the difference.. I wasn't in the particular mood to watch something of a serious nature, but it wasn't long before I was fully invested in the events.. Welcome to Chechnya is far from uninteresting, the director used many techniques to follow along to record events.. Regardless of the flow of the flick; a thoughtful person would realize, especially with the events of 2020 and since 2016 how much difference leadership can turn everything upside down and a group targeted. It is something to ponder and be ready to vote dinosaur leaders out....

A reminder for all of us who are fortunate to live in a democratic and human rights respectful counties that we must constantly fight for our rights and liberties. It is a sickening and eye opening that people and societies only comparable with the third reich still exist.

Significant remains the ball of emotions after its final credits. Because it is not about homophobia, a puppet leader from a Caucasian Republic and his dictatorship, about persecution of gays , about Russia under Putin. But about few people and their fight almost unrealistic. People like Olga Baranova, David Isteev, Maxim Lapunov , cases, danger, fears are pieces of a large tragedy about near reality. Few cases from many others, the effort to help, the selfishness and arrogance of two political regimes. And the basic human values. The film is not a manifesto, maybe not exactly a testimony. It is only a kick for a form of wake up. Not about LGBTQ+ rights , Pride manifestations or theories of genre but about right to be accepted as yourself, as person. Short, impressive, courageous, high useful.

David France's stirring documentary exposes the harsh persecution of LGBTQ+ people in Chechnya. It follows activists who put their lives in danger to save people who have been harmed by state-sponsored violence. The movie protects identities while expressing the emotional seriousness of their stories through the use of secret footage and facial replacement technology. It shows LGBTQ Chechens' horrific experiences with threats, torture, and extortion, as well as the tenacity and resolve of the Russian LGBT Network in planning escapes and navigating asylum procedures. The film is an example of resistance, calling for international responsibility and denouncing inaction in the face of injustice.

Strong, important document about violation of human rights in Czecznia in the context of LGBT community. Everybody should see it. The documentary shows heroic efforts and risks that some people take to help those in need. I could see similarity between the situation of gays in Czecznia now and Jews in Europe in 1930s.

This is going to be a short review. I'm astounded at the bravery of the rescue organisations portrayed in the film and the terrible and dangerous odds they have to work against. And I am so sorry for the individuals shown whose lives have been ruined by unreasoning hate. I am shocked to the core at the horror of what happens in Chechnya and also in Russia as shown in the clips of queer bashing and worse that are interspersed between some of the stories.

What a terrible place to live. What evil. The film conveyed it with dispassion, the mark of a conventional documentary. There was no need for a position to be taken, the characters and events spoke for themselves. Only those of truly perverted, evil minds could support what was happening to gay men and women in Chechnya as well as in Russia.

This doesn't have to be a gay person's documentary. I would recommend anyone to watch so they are aware that wickedness takes many forms.

An important topic and films about this should be produced and made more professionally and with a deeper analysis of what is happening. Assigning an injury to Chechen gays for a Russian gay is not correct. in the same way as the appropriation of an imminent threat to gay Chechens. Covering the face of a Russian gay who did not hide his face and had already made a public statement, the filmmakers devalue the impending threat to gay Chechens. the use in the film without permission of video of gays from Chechnya who are now in Chechnya and who are in danger because of this is not ethical.

To be honest I couldn't finish this movie because it turned my stomach. How crewl can people be to those who just want 'to be'? Obviously they can be very crewl.

With each show that I see about how the LGBT citizens are oppressed and punished I always say - "Look at the source of the hate - religion - all religions! And this hate is preached in the pulpit and supported by people tithing to finance this hate.