Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Welcome to Chechnya is a remarkable documentary that offers unprecedented access to LGBTQ activists and survivors fleeing a brutal purge in Chechnya. The plot is genuinely gripping and urgent, following real people in mortal danger with the tension of a thriller. The film's most distinctive and celebrated innovation is its use of deepfake technology to obscure the identities of subjects, a genuinely novel and ethically purposeful filmmaking choice that makes this documentary truly singular. Cinematography is competent and immersive given the dangerous conditions under which it was shot, though constrained by necessity. Acting, in the documentary sense of on-screen presence and testimony, is powerful and authentic. The ending, while providing some resolution, leaves the larger horror unresolved — appropriately so but somewhat anticlimactic in structure.