Press
“He (France) and his team continually checked in and made sure they had a hand in their stories and that meant that France created a new form of consent that could change how documentary filmmakers work with their subjects.”
“France took great care in disguising the identities of the individuals trying to escape Chechnya, using digital technology to alter the participant’s faces.”
“France goes inside the shocking and horrific genocide that Chechnyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov is unleashing on people who live in danger because of their sexual orientation.”
“There is no doubting of (the film’s) fury and anguish on behalf of the victims and survivors we see — and the many, many more we don’t”
“(Welcome to Chechnya) reminds us what true courage means.”
Michael O’Sullivan, The Washington Post
“A testament to human kindness, ingenuity, and courage”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian
“But “Welcome to Chechnya” could represent the introduction of a new kind of “soft mask,” one that hides a subject’s identity while still allowing for a complex emotional attachment.”
Joshua Rothkopf, The New York Times
“The necessity of shielding the film’s participants from exposure proves France’s greatest obstacle, yet it results in the film’s most ingenious tactic.”
Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
“A highly effective piece of activism in itself”
James Kleinmann, The Queer Review
“With the existence of Welcome to Chechnya, the humanitarian emergency is now impossible to deny.”
“This powerful documentary should call people of conscience around the world into action.”
“Brave and confronting in ways that many filmmakers could only hope for.”
“No one has ever found such a deep and humanitarian use of a ‘deep fake’.”
“David France has created a true masterwork of LGBT empathy, working both as a devastating portrait of hate as well as a rallying cry to arms. This is one of the best documentaries of the year.”
Redmond Bacon, Culture Vultures
“Undoubtedly a magnum opus of sorts on human rights documentation”
“Gripping, essential viewing”
“Welcome to Chechnya is as fearless as its subjects, unafraid to show the violence and emotional torture of these people.”
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com
“Welcome to Chechnya was the (Sundance Film) festival’s most rousing and essential film…Director David France summons the nervous energy of a peak Bourne thriller.”
“See this film. See it now. This is tour de force documentary filmmaking on a level rarely seen and experienced.”
“Nail-biting, pulse-racing stuff — terrifying and awful, yet vital and compelling.”
“The videos are horrific, the kind of atrocities no human should be meant to see. And it’s exactly why everyone must see it.”
“Welcome to Chechnya further establishes France as America’s foremost documentarian on LGBTQ issues.”
“Both carefully reported and deeply felt, Welcome to Chechnya seems assured to win critical accolades, and simultaneously engage and outrage sympathetic audiences.”
Stephen Witty, Screen International
“France makes sure the technology that made this possible is something you think about later or not at all as you are on this intense ride and lets the humanity come through, both in the remarkable bravery of those it follows and the equally staggering capacity for cruelty of those who have put them in such a horrific position.”
Stephen Saito, The Moveable Feast
“In the face of silence from so many countries, ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ has the potential to rally global humanitarian concern for this tragedy.”
“Welcome to Chechnya balances cold indignation over the barbarism being allowed to continue through scorching emotional impact in the personal stories.”
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter