SummarySearing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Since 2016, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ+ Chech...
SummarySearing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Since 2016, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ+ Chech...
Advocacy meets suspense in Welcome to Chechnya, a chilling examination of both the brutality that the Chechen LGBT community is forced to face on a daily basis and the difficulty of leaving the country for peace and safety.
This is disgusting, what such things can be happened in modern world. It looks more like middle age, but not 2017. This is very important social problem. I am not LGBT, but this more about humans life and basic rights, than sexual orientation.
As in his previous films, the Oscar-nominated "How to Survive a Plague” and “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson,” France, an investigative reporter, presents ordinary citizens doing remarkable things. If only our governments could learn to follow suit.
What comes across is the ease with which a person can disappear in plain sight, for obvious reasons, and a government—committed to its hateful pogrom—can simply shrug it off. And the world lets them get away with it—even despite documentaries like this.
Built on a potent mixture of quiet bravery and hard-won access, David France’s new documentary, Welcome to Chechnya, puts audiences in the middle of the literally life-or-death struggle of an already endangered minority.
Welcome to Chechnya is a horror movie, but it’s also a collective profile in courage. You can’t say that “such people” are not here. They are, and they’re not just heroes, the movie suggests. They’re the last thing standing between survival and a purge.
'Welcome to Chechnya' documents the true horror of **** living in that country. With intense moments worthy of a thriller film, and some others very harsh, this documentary excels in creating a very cohesive and factual story about abuse, violence, and impotence. After seeing this, you wonder if we're still living in the Middle Ages.
(español / English)
Despotismo **** en Chechenia.
Extracto:
Tremendo documental de David France que nos muestra el arresgado accionar de la ONG Russian LGTB Network. Una fuerte denuncia sobre la criminal política discriminatoria y represiva del gobierno checheno contra su población LGBTQ, en la que involucra a sus familias como agentes represivos, en un país cuyo presidente, el homófobo confeso Kadýrov, cuenta con el apoyo explícito de Putin.
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Reseña:
Chechenia es una pequeña república de mayoría musulmana ubicada en el norte del Cáucaso que forma parte de la Federación Rusa. Su presidente, Ramzan Kadýrov, un millonario que la gobierna en forma autocrática con el franco apoyo de Putin, lleva adelante una violenta política **** y trans fóbica, apresando y torturando **** varones y mujeres para que “delaten” a otros. Algunos, fueron asesinados por el gobierno -ya que no sobrevivieron a las torturas- y la mayoría son devueltos a sus familias para que “se encarguen de ellos”, es decir para que ellas mismas los asesinen. Por otro lado, son varios los denunciados por sus propias familias.
Este documental tremendo sigue la arriesgada tarea de algunos miembros de la Russian LGTB Network, una ONG (vinculada a otras del exterior) dedicada a rescatar a los **** chechenos sacándolos de ese país, alojarlos en distintos refugios secretos (uno de ellos en Moscú) y gestionar su emigración a países que los acojan en calidad de refugiados. Los casos abordados son principalmente dos: uno de un ruso que hizo una visita ocasional a Grozni, la capital chechena y fue apresado y torturado y otro de una chica chechena lesbiana extorsionada por su tío.
Aclaremos que la misma Rusia no constituye tampoco un refugio seguro para los **** rescatados.
Para preservar la identidad de los refugiados, sus familias y parejas, el documental recurre a la técnica de deepfake, donde la cara y la voz de algunos de ellos son reemplazadas digitalmente por caras y voces de actores. Observamos como es la vida cotidiana en los refugios, conmovedoras escenas familiares y, en muchos momentos, el relato se tensa con escenas dignas de una película de espionaje. Se insertan además durísimos videos de apresamientos y abusos de las fuerzas policiales chechenas interceptados por la ONG.
**** despotism in Chechnya.
Abstract:
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 **** Kadyrov, has the explicit support of Putin.
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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 **** and transphobic policy, imprisoning and torturing **** 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 **** 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 **** 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.
It would be very easy to brand Russia as the villain of the movie on most occasions, but in this case there's no excuse, no propaganda. It is what it is. Even if many do not like to accept it and others prefer to look the other way.
It means to be bleak, and there may not be changes in this generation, but it's more disheartening to believe that they will not occur.
I was left in limbo watching this documentary. The reward of even a tiny glimpse of hope is always rooted from someone’s tragic way of life. One couldn’t believe the inhumane ways of how we treat other human being that it has gone beyond the politics, the stigma in our social system, religion and belief. Welcome to Chechnya is a reflection of the gross, horrific and sad reality of how oppressed the LGBTQ community is in parts of the world, where despite the forward leaning and progression to fight for LGBTQ equality and rights, oppression and discrimination are still exercised.
Production Company
Public Square Films,
HBO Documentary Films,
Ninety Thousand Words,
Maylo Films,
BBC Storyville,
Bertha Doc Society Journalism Fund,
Palette Fund