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.
