Directed by David France
Featuring Olga Baranova, David Istee and Maxim Lapunov
Running time: 1 hour and 47

by Ryan Smillie
I remember reading Masha Gessen’s “The Gay Men Who Fled Chechnya’s Purge” in The New Yorker almost exactly three years ago. Amid years of increasing anti-gay legislation and hate crimes throughout Russia, the Chechen government had initiated anti-gay purges, targeting the LGBTQ citizens of Chechnya. Gessen detailed the lead-up to this anti-gay campaign, the torture inflicted on its targets, and the efforts of Russian LGBTQ activists to protect gay Chechens. Days after reading Gessen’s article, David France, director of How to Survive a Plague and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, was in Moscow, beginning work on his next documentary, Welcome to Chechnya, which debuts on HBO on June 30th.