Welcome to Chechnya(2020)
dir. David France
Activists smuggle persecuted people out of Chechnya.
Where to watch: Subscription: HBO Max $10.99/mo, Prime Video; free: Kanopy, Hoopla, Tubi, Plex; rent $2.99 Fandango At Home, $3.99 Amazon, $4.99 Apple TV; buy $9.99-12.99 (JustWatch US; page check date not confirmed, around 2026-10-10, re-check). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
In Chechnya, gay and lesbian people are abducted, tortured and killed, and the state denies it is happening. A small team of Russian activists runs a network of safe houses and secret flights, smuggling survivors out of the country. France follows them, and uses a digital face-replacement technique, with volunteer faces laid over the survivors, to protect people who are still in danger. A documentary about a persecution and the people who refuse to look away.
Why it’s here
It's a film about the state making a group of people disappear and a few others deciding to stop it. What's punk is the underground railroad quality of it, an organized refusal that runs on nerve and shared phone numbers. What's pedagogical is the way it shows persecution as a system, with a government that denies, a society that stays quiet and activists who document. Note: R-rated; discusses and depicts torture and violence; the face-replacement technique is disclosed and some viewers find it distancing; Chechen authorities deny the allegations. Older teens and adults. Director David France also made How to Survive a Plague.
Where This Film Lives