Welcome to Chechnya (2020) on Netflix

Name: Welcome to Chechnya
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2020-06-30
Duration: 107 min
Rating: 7.9
Cast: Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, Zelim Bakaev

NR20201h 47mDocumentary

In the Russian republic of Chechnya, an anti-gay campaign puts LGBT people at risk. Activists help survivors of torture reach safehouses and get out of Russia, working in secret.

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Netflix4.5/5
IMDb7.9/103,415 votes
Rotten Tomatoes100%

Trailer

Plot summary

During the late 2010s, an anti-gay campaign in the Russian republic of Chechnya forces LGBT people to flee. Activists help survivors of torture leave the country by way of safehouses. The film was made in secret with hidden cameras, cell phones, GoPros and handycams, and it shields the identities of the refugees it interviews: their faces are replaced through artificial intelligence and visual effects work, so viewers watch real expressions without learning who the speakers are. Editing took place in a windowless room. Maxim Lapunov appears publicly, having sought legal redress from Russian authorities.

Cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

To protect interviewees' identities while still showing their faces, director David France used artificial intelligence and novel visual effects to replace them, so viewers saw real faces displaying real emotions.
To avoid exposing the activists rescuing torture survivors in Chechnya, the film was shot in secret using hidden cameras, cell phones, GoPros and handycams.
Because the interviewees' identities had to be protected, the crew could not move the footage across the internet or work in an open studio, so they edited the film in a windowless room.
Refugee Maxim Lapunov is the one person publicly identified in the film; he had sought, and failed, to get legal redress from Russian authorities.
The mysterious disappearance of gay Chechen singer Zelim Bakaev after he visited Grozny for his sister's wedding in August 2017 gets a brief mention in the film.