Welcome to Chechnya

Welcome to Chechnya (2020) is David France's investigative documentary you can watch online on iFILM. It rides along with a small underground network that smuggles people out of a republic where being gay can mean abduction, torture, or simply vanishing for good.

Most of the story unfolds on the move. Olga Baranova and David Isteev run safe houses, forge papers, and shepherd terrified strangers across borders, never sure who is being watched. One survivor, Maxim Lapunov, makes a choice none before him dared — to drop his anonymity and accuse the state by name. To shield everyone else, France pulled off a striking technical trick: deepfake-style faces digitally grafted over the real ones, so witnesses could speak without being recognized.

Shot almost in secret, the film carries a tension no scripted thriller can fake. It rattled audiences at Sundance and on HBO, and became one of the most talked-about accounts of the purges in the North Caucasus. Tough viewing, but the kind that resets how you see a headline. Stream Welcome to Chechnya (2020) online on iFILM.