Welcome to Chechnya

DAVID FRANCE | UNITED STATES | 107'

With searing urgency, Welcome to Chechnya, shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic.

Since 2017, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to ‘cleanse the blood’ of LGBTQ Chechens, overseeing a government-directed campaign to detain, torture and execute them. As a consequence, activists have taken matters into their own hands.

Director, David France uses a remarkable approach to enable anonymity while exposing these atrocities. To protect their identities France uses controversial “deepfake” technology, allowing the filmmaker to tell the story of a group of extraordinary people: the heartbreak, agony, loneliness, fear and uncertainty of fleeing your homeland for your life.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “A moving and vital indictment of mass persecution.”

New York Times

Credits

Director: David France
Producers: Alice Henty, Joy A. Tomchin, Askold Kurov, David France
Language: Russian & English subtitles
Awards: Hot Docs, Audience Award, 2020; Winner Sundance 2020