Hard to watch, but terrific documentary on the horrific situation for the LGBTQ+ Community in the Russian Republic of Chechnya, where official, unofficial & family persecution is not just condoned/ignored, but encouraged. Writer/director David France runs his film largely out of a bare-bones secret-shelter/group-home on the outskirts of Moscow, where a small group of poorly-funded, but stubborn Gay Rights Activists park freshly smuggled refugees while they try to find a country willing to accept them as political refugees. Footage taken inside Chechnya is mostly hidden-camera material of actual escapes, in some cases using a new digital system that alters faces to protect against identification with a ‘painted,’ slightly dulled, but lifelike face instead of the usual blurring effects, maintaining emotional connection with the victim as they adjust to new lives & identities. A wait that may take months of near isolation, with government agents regularly on the hunt just outside. In one case, the family of Russian Maxim Lapunov, illegally detained & tortured while on work assignment in Chechnya, are also forced to leave for an unnamed European country. (Canada seems first choice, while the U.S.A. has accepted exactly zero refugees.) An intensely moving scene has Maxim, summoning the courage to return to Russia to testify in court, ‘shedding’ his digital face. A simple, but devastating effect. The good works are impressive, but the problem far too large for a single organization held together with paper & glue, especially when members have to flee the country for their own safety.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The film needs a fuller discussion of the Chechnya-Muslim influence pushing the agenda. Are things any better in the surrounding Russian territories? And Vladimir Putin’s pet ‘strongman,’ Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov: Symptom or Disease? The man an obvious sociopath. As Lenin put it: ‘What Is To Be Done?’
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