This is a very difficult, upsetting and triggering episode. Today we’re joined by director David France to talk about his latest film Welcome To Chechnya.

"Unmatched since Hitler, it’s a government led campaign to round up and eliminate all LGBT people. The Final Solution…happening before our eyes"

Since April 2017, the government in Chechnya has initiated state sanctioned murder, forced disappearances, abductions, imprisonment, torture of LGBTQ+ citizens - with an unknown number of people dying after being detained in what human rights groups call concentration camps. The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov denies all of the above - or that gay people exist in Chechnya, stating that such people would be killed by their own families. In some cases, gay men have been let out of prison, specifically to enable their murder by relatives.

David’s latest film Welcome to Chechnya shines a light on a vast underground network of safe houses, contacts, and pipelines created by Russian LGBTQ+ groups to help vulnerable LGBTQ+ people escape these horrors. Please consider donating to the Russian LGBT Network, head to https://help.lgbtnet.org/en

Watch Welcome to Chechnya on BBC iPlayer in the UK or HBO in the US.

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Saturday 22nd April