And I was outraged that they were being forced to do this all on their own, and that the world wasnt coming to pay attention to and put pressure against the Chechen government.". Uno de los casos que sigue el documental es el de "Anya", una joven pidiendo ayuda despus de que su to descubre su identidad homosexual. Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Russian government has shut down . A reckoning is essential for all of the crimes against human rights the smaller, less consequential ones like name-calling, the ones that are life altering and certainly the most extreme examples, like what we see happening in Chechnya, where its still going on, France said. And not just them, but their family members, too. A Anya la seguiremos en una fuga de pelcula de suspenso y algo similar pasar con otros personajes. Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. Its practically seamless more convincing than the de-aging in The Irishman, anyway and points to entire new worlds of possibility in documentary footage preserving peoples anonymity. Now, it must bring him down Jonathan Littell Putin believed he could invade Ukraine because everything we failed to do over the last 22 years taught him. Thats where he was seized by the security agents. And the world lets them get away with iteven despite documentaries like this. The effect is never quite seamless. Welcome to Chechnya notes that, under the Trump administration, the United States had not accepted any refugees from Chechnya or the Russian Federation who were fleeing persecution, torture and death because of their sexual orientation. To have the savvy to negotiate a political media landscape where a video could potentially be a deepfake, or a legitimate video could be called a deepfake, I think those are cases people need to be aware of, he said. A checkpoint is en route. "[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. We meet survivors and their family members, including Grisha, who was beaten and tortured for 12 days so badly injured he could only crawl afterward. Frances movie, which premieres on HBO Tuesday, is largely focused on a Moscow-based group of activists attempting to help these survivors flee the country. It was my greatest fear: that I could blow up the whole operation. Her uncles threatening to out her unless she has sex with him, and given the high-profile family connections Isteev and Baranova have even less time and resources than usual to sneak her out of the country. Like other refugees, Anya had her face replaced with a digital veil in post-production (see In Digital Disguise). Welcome to Chechnya pays important tribute to the courage of its subjects, including activists like Isteev and Baranova, who risk their own persecution and exposure. Be a witness. We dont have such people here. Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday! During a drug raid, police found suggestive texts and photos on a man's cell phone that led them to believe he identified as gay. The three films Ive made are about a kind of a radical kind of queer activism, that I think really leads the world in bringing a kind of a love-based activism to these really awful issues and making a difference, France said. Nonetheless, a camera inside the cab keeps recording. The moment is extremely tense. Welcome to Chechnya is largely procedural, with long scenes detailing the steps it takes to covertly travel from one territory to another, toward safety or something like it. Similarly harrowing, but also more hopeful, is the experience of a 30-year-old Russian businessman, here called "Grisha," who was detained and beaten for 12 days during a trip to Chechnya. Its an essential part of our total cultural history: the face as window, the core of our identity, the most distinguishing feature of the body, said Bill Nichols, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and a pioneer in the field of documentary studies. And as in France's first film, the people. 197 posts. The activists dont know where she is, but, according to France, Theyve been told shes alive.. It's a bold gambit that may put off those who find it too duplicitous in the context of a documentary. And this changes nothing. (Courtesy of HBO) "Welcome to Chechnya" premieres Tuesday on HBO. David France's HBO film shines light on the brutal campaign by officials in the semi-autonomous Russian region to imprison, torture and sometimes kill gay men. In 2017, the Russian republic of Chechnya began what some news outlets have dubbed the gay purge, rounding up and torturing LGBTQ+ citizens at secret black sites. David Frances revelatory film may have been subtitled The Gay Purge, but from the start it was clear this wasnt just another documentary from Russia charting the increasing pressure faced by that countrys queer community. (Photo courtesy of HBO Documentary Films via AP) "Bogdan" and his boyfriend, "Grisha," stress out as they attempt to escape from Russia. So I became a selfie queen, says France. Then its over, and Anya is free to go. So I decided to lay low., Its not gone well for Anya. After some chitchat, the women leave by taxi for the airport. Say hello to deepfake. After the initial gains of the Russian army, the Chechen rebels demonstrated a . Will a documentary that expressly embraces the technique help matters? (The Get Out director Jordan Peele tried to raise awareness with an eerie deepfake of Barack Obama.) Summary: Searing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome to Chechnya shadows a group of activists who risk unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. We dont have any gays. If there are any, he continues, they ought to be eradicatedsent to Canada, for the sake of purifying the country. Maybe shocking. Even Facebook, not known for its strict policing of content, pledged to ban deepfakes in January. Plans start at $9.99/month. Si su padre, miembro del gobierno checheno . Kadyrov and his security forces have been widely accused by international human rights groups of extrajudicial arrests, torture and killings. Im still processing, and so is the rest of the crew. The First Chechen War explains a lot of what Russia and Putin are doing in Ukraine today: On New Year's Eve, 1994 Russian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles poured into the streets of Grozny with an assault expected to snuff out the self-declared Chechcen Republic of Ichkeria, as black smoke poured into the sky from oil tanks set ablaze by a dawn artillery bombardment. Welcome to Chechnya opened with footage of activist David Isteev ( pictured below) waiting anxiously on his phone, listening to 21-year-old "Anya" - the names of all except the activists were changed, their faces and voices disguised - from the Chechen capital Grozny, tell how she was being blackmailed by a family member threatening to reveal her It allows my subjects to narrate their own stories. Being there made me feel like Id been sent back to the French Resistance. And that hasnt changed since the documentary was completed. A FILM BY DAVID FRANCE. Unlike the others, Grisha is unmasked late in the film when he goes before cameras to testify about whats happening in Chechnya. And it still is. The false face morphs into the real face of Maxim Lapunov, who later appeared with France and two members of the Russian rescue operation, Olga Baranova and David Isteev, at the Sundance premiere to a thunderous standing ovation. Grisha now going by his real name, Maxim may have had his identity finally restored, but the fate of his call for investigation would be depressingly familiar, refused in another rote court decision (his fight for justice continues at the European Court for Hight Rights). (All refugees are assigned pseudonyms, such as Grisha and Anya.) He wants you to see them. The movie opens on a dark street in the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, where a man smokes a cigarette and arranges secret meetings and transports by phone. Its footage that was shot as trophies by the people who committed those crimes. How would he shield the identity of at-risk gay and lesbian Chechens fleeing the region via a network of safe houses, while also preserving their emotions, their affections and expressions? Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Fragile Snowflake Donald Trump for Allegedly Trying to Censor Him, Ghostwriting Gloria Swanson: The Strange, Sexually Charged Genesis of a Legendary Autobiography, Ezra Millers Messiah Delusions: Inside. Oscar-nominated filmmaker David France follows the activists who expose Russia's war on gays. Where photography is strictly forbidden is at passport control. HBO's chilling "Welcome to Chechnya" depicts the heroism of ordinary people caught in an LGBTQ purge Director David France's riveting documentary never feels safe as he illuminates a world of. The mere presence of France's camera might endanger their lives and their work, but it's also crucial to drawing international attention to the Chechen government's abuses. A gay couple in Welcome to Chechnya. The faces were replaced in postproduction. HBO. Welcome to Chechnya chronicles the persecution of LGBTQ youth in this ultra-conservative society. Posted on 21 de fevereiro de 2022 by . . Ghastly. Its there that he first met the men and women who are featured in his new documentary Welcome to Chechnya, which premieres Tuesday on HBO. Whats not obvious in the filmthough not on purposeis that this shot was taken from the backup teams taxi, not Anyas. Chechnya, also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, republic in southwestern Russia, situated on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range. These are ghastly images, and I'm not convinced the film needed all of them to convey the full horror of what's going on. And if a post-Trump administration merely restored the Obama-era foreign policies that defended LGBTQ people around the world, then that would definitely cause a change in whats happening in Russia and elsewhere.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020 and was released on June 30, 2020, by HBO Films. For Anyas rescue operation, the Sony stayed home. But a problem surfaced the night before the rescue. Everyones nervous, knowing that at any minute Anyas name could appear on a federal wanted list. He had seen television news interviews from the Russian, largely Muslim republic: the subjects were dimmed in shadows, their voices digitally altered, but he found it hard to connect with them. "People in Chechnya who are suspected of being lesbian, gay or bisexual, are facing a 'new wave of persecution' following a spate of killings involving torture, and other rights abuses," a group. Hearing the victims recount their stories is devastating. It was a gay purge. I appeared to be smiling at my own image while actually grabbing shots over his shoulder. It was Grishas particular situation that brought the film's action into direct contact with officialdom. Shameful. People felt for them in a very emotional way, and showed it, France said. And it restores to them their humanity in a way that would not have been possible under other circumstances., Still, why should we trust a documentary that uses deepfakes? Another agonising airport moment came when Grisha flew to lasting safety abroad, accompanied not only by his boyfriend but by his family as well: the threats of the Chechen power structures extended so far in Russia that all concerned were in peril, and so had to be moved. We witnessed Anyas extrication from Chechnya across the mountains, the first step in an evacuation that saw her moved to temporary safety in the hinterland of a neighbouring country (her journey would go no further, not the only example where family coercion or other intervention would prove more powerful than fear). The darkness was painfully visible throughout Welcome to Chechnya, but France somehow managed to close the film in light a beam, however tentative and hesitant, that nevertheless shone through with affirmation. And Im still on it. I decided not to use any special equipment or hidden camerasfor example, a camera in your eyeglasses. Their operation, run from a discreet location that becomes a haven for escapees-in-wait, receives about 25 new refugees a month. Another of these young people tries to slit their wrists. (Photo courtesy of Igor Myakotin/Welcome to Chechnya) David France at the Sundance Film Festival. (Pavel Golovkin | AP file photo) Chechen regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov smiles prior to President Vladimir Putin's annual state of the nation address in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 1, 2016. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. He is confronted over the allegation that LGBT citizens have been getting abducted and tortured by his regime. Anya's story is one of the main threads. The Montreal Mafia Murders: Blood, Gore, Cannolis, and Hockey Bags, A Comprehensive Guide to Why a Ron DeSantis Presidency Would Be as Terrifying as a Trump One. What our film proves is that this can be done in the right way., Deepfake Technology Enters the Documentary World, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/movies/deepfakes-documentary-welcome-to-chechnya.html. They were horrible stories and theres no doubt that they were real, France, an Oscar-nominated activist filmmaker, said. Ad Choices. Verified. I tried to install the app, and it didnt work. That meant Ivanova was sneaking peeks or shooting blind throughout the operation. This technology allowed us to just stretch the facesover the images that I shot in the film. Grade: B+ "Welcome to Chechnya" premiered at the Sundance. The story in Chechnya is unfortunately still ongoing. They have grim stories: of being captured by police, of getting questioned over their phone contacts, of being driven to those contacts homes and forced to aid the police in their respective capture. Chechen authorities let him go because he is not ethnically Chechen. For many, simply walking out of Chechnya isn't an option. Eight years later, France has delivered a depressingly necessary companion piece, but where his previous pictures battles were settled history fought in archival footage, Welcome to Chechnya is ripped straight from the headlines, using iPhones and GoPros to take us behind the lines of a genocide happening here and now. Since 2016, Chechnya's tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to "cleanse the blood" of LGBTQ+ Searing urgency is a guiding force as Welcome . But things got much worse in early 2017, when the leader of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, a strongman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, began a violent purge of anyone suspected of being gay or transgender. Welcome to Chechnya is not easy to watch. Certain hyped-up scenes, with their insistent music and TV expose vibe, fall flat precisely because they add an energy that this situation, an outright tragedy, shouldnt need in order to make its point. And France had even more horrifying clips that he held back. The main location we saw was one of the Moscow safe houses that provided a temporary home for those en route to somewhere else; its routine of wary everyday life, interspersed by periodic departures for the airport, seemed almost normal until painfully broken by a traumatised young man attempting suicide. And as in Frances first film, the people most in desperate need of help have once again been abandoned to their own devices. And that included extreme security protocols while filming in Chechnya encrypting the footage and smuggling it out of the country. IE 11 is not supported. Instead, they edited the film in a windowless room in order to keep with security protocols. I didnt want to create a reel of horrors, I wanted to underscore what had happened to the people who were in the film, France said. A film about persecuted gay and lesbian Chechens uses digital manipulation to guard their identities without losing their humanity. Afterwards, the cards would be wiped clean. Some strange people came to my flat and spoke with my mom. Filmmaker David France goes inside what can only be called a genocide that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has unleashed against his LGBTQ citizens. I think the point's been made and now it's time to take . The 10 Best Movies of 2020 (So Far) Review: Spike Lees Da 5 Bloods Is Gold The Wild Life and Many Loves of Ava Gardner Inside Pete Davidson and John Mulaneys Make-A-Wish Friendship Now Streaming: Over 100 Years of Black Defiance at the Movies Is TV Sabotaging Itself With Shrinking Shows? From the Archive: Exposing MGMs Smear Campaign Against Rape Survivor Patricia Douglas. One of the most powerful moments in the documentary, "Welcome to Chechnya," premiering June 30 at 10:00 pm on HBO, has a young gay man recalling his arrest and torture. May 31, 2021 In Southeastern Europe, in a small Russian-controlled Republic called Chechnya, there is a brutal genocide taking place. With little emotion, the young man explains his scars as his boyfriend touches those spots and says nothing. And then to see it with an audience and to be able to introduce the people who were in the film to that audience it was a very gratifying experience.. 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