by Jude Dry

Over the course of his filmmaking career, David France has made urgent political documentaries about LGBTQ rights, first with the AIDS pandemic and the founders of ACT UP (the Oscar-nominated “How to Survive a Plague”), then the first transgender rights activists (“The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson”). His third film, “Welcome to Chechnya,” completes what he dubs in a director’s statement his “outsider activism” trilogy. Using guerrilla filmmaking tactics to shoot inside the heavily policed region, “Welcome to Chechnya” uncovers the horrific state-sanctioned detainment, torture, and execution of LGBTQ Chechens, humanizing the victims while protecting their identities with groundbreaking VFX technology. It’s France’s bravest film yet, and a noble conclusion to his trilogy.

The film’s central figures are the activists who risk their own lives in order to help evacuate at-risk people from Chechnya. The stakes are beyond high as the film opens with David Isteev, head of Russia’s largest gay rights group The Russian LGBT Network, responding to a troubling phone call. A 21-year-old lesbian says her uncle is threatening to out her to her family if she doesn’t have sex with him. Her father is a high-ranking official in the Chechen government, and Anya is certain he will hurt — maybe even kill — her should he find out. These are the options for lesbians in Chechnya: Rape or death. Read more via IndieWire