Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

January 26, 2020 (US) • Documentary • 107m

Overview

This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.

Director

David France

Writers

David France, Tyler H. Walk

Top Billed

Maxim Lapunov

Keywords

lgbt gay theme gay rights

Top Billed Cast

Maxim Lapunov

Self

Olga Baranova

Self

David Isteev

Self

Vladimir Putin

Self

Ramzan Kadyrov

Self

Zelim Bakaev

Self

Crew

Megaera Stephens

First Assistant Camera

Brooke Lyndon-Stanford

Visual Effects Supervisor

David France

Director

Alice Henty

Producer

David France

Producer

Askold Kurov

Producer

Joy A. Tomchin

Executive Producer

Tyler H. Walk

Editor

Askold Kurov

Director of Photography

Igor Myakotin

Co-Producer

Evgueni Galperine

Original Music Composer

Sacha Galperine

Original Music Composer

David France

Screenplay

Tyler H. Walk

Screenplay

Tyler H. Walk

Co-Producer

Derek Wiesehahn

Director of Photography

Neal Baer

Executive Producer

Kevin Jennings

Executive Producer

Masha Gessen

Executive Producer

Jonathan Logan

Executive Producer

Jess Search

Executive Producer

Lekha Singh

Executive Producer

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Executive Producer

Alan Getz

Executive Producer

Justin Mikita

Executive Producer

Stan Tomchin

Executive Producer

Katya Kumkova

Associate Producer

Suzana Perić

Music Editor

Lora Hirschberg

Sound Re-Recording Mixer

Ryan Laney

Visual Effects Supervisor

Igor Myakotin

Assistant Editor

Victor Ilyukhin

Assistant Editor

Lora Hirschberg

Supervising Sound Editor

Reviews

CinemaSerf

⭐ 7/10

September 5, 2024

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.

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Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

David France, Tyler H. Walk

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

CinemaSerf

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