With the rise of autocratic governments in many countries around the world, there’s been a corresponding increase in violence against those they disagree with or seek to demonize. Since 2016, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a brazen operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ Chechens, overseeing a government-directed campaign to detain, torture and execute them. With searing urgency, Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ pogrom raging in the repressive Russian republic. With no help from the Kremlin and only faint global condemnation, these activists take matters into their own hands, risking their lives and those of their families to deliver persecuted LGBTQ Chechens to safety. In this powerful and urgent film, director David France uses a remarkable approach to anonymity to expose this atrocity and to tell the story of an extraordinary group of people confronting evil. Shane Smith
This film includes a pre-recorded Q&A.
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