Click here to copy URL

Welcome to Chechnya

2020

David France

Documentary

7.2

335

Documentary This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ pogrom raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Since 2016, Chechnya’s tyrannical leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has waged a depraved operation to “cleanse the blood” of LGBTQ+ Chechens, overseeing a government-directed campaign to detain, torture, and execute them. With no help from the Kremlin and only faint ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Guy Lodge Variety	"Vital, pulse-quickening (...) Wholly devastating"
		David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"Hard-hitting, emotionally charged and frequently distressing (...) All this is chilling stuff"
		Stephen Whitty Screendaily	"Both carefully reported and deeply felt, it seems assured to win critical accolades, and simultaneously engage and outrage sympathetic audiences"
		Jude Dry IndieWire	"It’s France’s bravest film yet, and a noble conclusion to his trilogy (...) [It] balances its more journalistic reporting with equally compelling human stories"
		Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"France engages the audience by giving us personal insight into Grisha and Anya and other escapees (...) [It] has the potential to rally global humanitarian concern for this tragedy."
		Michael Frank Ready Steady Cut	"Always tense and important, 'Welcome to Chechnya' felt like one of, if not the most important piece of filmmaking at the entire festival (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Jeannette Catsoulis The New York Times	"The intimacy and immediacy of the filmmaking can (...) produce moments of enormous tenderness (...) A moving and vital indictment of mass persecution"
		Monica Castillo rogerebert.com	"'Welcome to Chechnya' is both astonishingly groundbreaking in its use of technology, and difficult to watch. It potentially opens new doors to filmmakers and journalists (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		David Fear Rolling Stone	"Everything feels as if it’s happening in a fraught, frightening present tense (...) 'Welcome to Chechnya' is a horror movie, but it’s also a collective profile in courage (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Rebecca Nicholson The Guardian	"[It] is both a testament to human kindness and a grim portrait of suffering (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.