Review of Welcome to Chechnya

"Welcome to Chechnya" documents the persecution of gay men and lesbian women in Chechnya, a republic of the Russian Federation. It follows the Moscow Community Center LGBT group and their efforts to shelter gay people in danger, including "Grisha" (later revealed to be Maxim Lapunov), an event planner who is not even ethnically Chechnyan. The story is powerful, gripping, and tense, and at times hard to watch, especially when they intercut candid footage of gays being beat up.