Accomplished investigative journalist David France came to Chechnya – one of the republics of Russia consigned to oblivion in the collective Western consciousness – with the intention of documenting the ongoing genocide of homosexual men and women. He certainly managed to do so, as Welcome to Chechnya is an emotionally harrowing cinematic exposé of the malicious and inhumane government-driven hunt for people who love differently than what is culturally and socially accepted. Nonetheless, it was in the midst of this horror that France found a shimmer of light: a group of activists who risk their lives to save a tiny fraction of those persecuted and help them start anew in a number of distant countries.

Dariusz Kuźma: You apparently made the film during a period of 18 months, filled with risky trips to Chechnya and Russia, where you had to work undercover for most of the time.

David France: I started working on the project after reading an article in The New Yorker about this underground network of activists who were doing their best to rescue LGBTQ people from the blood cleansing campaign that was going on in Chechnya. So, I applied for a tourist visa and went there, officially to admire the harsh beauty of Russia, unofficially to meet people who were running that network and record what they were doing.