Documentary

Welcome to Chechnya

HBO Documentary Films

Public Square Films

David France & Joy A. Tomchin Film

Ninety Thousand Words

Maylo Films

BBC Storyville

United States of America

English

Français

Pусский

Maxim Lapunov

Olga Baranova

David Isteev

Vladimir Putin

Ramzan Kadyrov

Zelim Bakaev

Megaera Stephens

Brooke Lyndon-Stanford

David France

Alice Henty

Askold Kurov

Joy A. Tomchin

Tyler H. Walk

Igor Myakotin

Evgueni Galperine

Sacha Galperine

Derek Wiesehahn

Neal Baer

Kevin Jennings

Masha Gessen

Jonathan Logan

Jess Search

Lekha Singh

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Alan Getz

Justin Mikita

Stan Tomchin

Katya Kumkova

Suzana Perić

Lora Hirschberg

Ryan Laney

Victor Ilyukhin

CinemaSerf

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.

Welcome To Chechnya (2020): Official Trailer

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Welcome to Chechnya

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Cast

Maxim Lapunov

Olga Baranova

David Isteev

Vladimir Putin

Ramzan Kadyrov

Zelim Bakaev

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