'Welcome to Chechnya': Release date, plot, cast, trailer and all you need to know about the HBO documentary
It is pride month as the LGBTQIA++ community's fight for equal rights continues worldwide. The community is affected differently in different parts of the world. A new HBO documentary centers on the anti-gay purges in Chechnya in the late 2010s, interviewing various LGBT Chechnyan refugees about their experiences. Read on to know more details.
Release date
'Welcome to Chechnya' will premiere on HBO on June 30.
Plot
The synopsis for the documentary states: "In this searing documentary, Academy Award-nominated director David France ('How To Survive A Plague') brings us a terrifying real-life thriller that shadows a group of brave activists risking their lives to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ persecution in the repressive and closed Russian republic of Chechnya. In recent years, tens of thousands of LGBTQ people in the republic have suffered detention, torture, and sometimes death at the hands of the authorities. But a small network of queer activists has mobilized into action, smuggling people in need out of their communities, securing visas, and sheltering them in safe houses. Shot with astonishing access, largely with hidden cameras that keep rolling throughout every moment of escape, and employing a revolutionary face-swapping technique to protect the anonymity of its endangered subjects, this documentary exposes these underreported atrocities, while highlighting an extraordinary group of heroic people confronting a brutal system."
Cast
Due to the highly dangerous situation in Chechnya and Russia, the faces of many of the film's subjects are obscured with an overlay of another real person's face using advanced facial replacement techniques from visual effects technology. By using real faces displaying real emotions, the effect is uncannily life-like, allowing the viewer to connect emotionally with the brave men and women who have been profiled, while still protecting the identities fo the speakers.
Director
David France
David France is an American investigative reporter, non-fiction author and filmmaker. He is a former Newsweek senior editor and has published in New York magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and GQ, among others. France is best known for his investigative journalism on LGBT+ topics. France's other documentaries include 'How to Survive a Plague' about the early years of the US AIDS epidemic and 'The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson' about Marsha P Johnson, a black trans woman and a prominent activist in the late 1960s through the early 1990s.
Trailer
If you like this, you'll love these:
'How to Survive a Plague'
'The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson'
'State of Pride'
'Kiki'
'Paris is Burning'