Welcome to Chechnya

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.