In the space of just a few years, Chechnya has undergone a remarkable transformation. Gone are the minefields and piles of rubble, replaced with broad avenues, luxury boutiques and glass-fronted skyscrapers. It’s virtually impossible to see there was ever a war.
Award-winning journalist, Manon Loizeau, spent the past 20 years covering the Chechen conflict. She returns to the places she knew so well, filming undercover in Chechnya, to reveal how Putin has ‘pacified’ this once proud land.
Behind the gleaming facade of the new Grozny, Loizeau discovered women and men more terrified than in all the years of war and occupation. A fifth of the population vanished during the war but anyone who tries to remember is eliminated. Chechnya has become a true police state which removes, tortures and kills those who do not submit to the Kremlin’s new order. A journey into the realm of oblivion and terror.
A harrowing and important film by acclaimed director, Manon Loizeau, on the use of rape as a weapon of war in Syria with personal testimonies from women abused in captivity.
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Grozny. July 2009. The body of journalist and human rights defender Natasha Estemirova is discovered by the side of the road. In this investigation, we examine the silencing of voices of dissent in Russia.
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They were the first to rise up against their leaders in 2009. The first to tweet, Facebook and YouTube updates, filming the fall-out of their failed revolution on cameraphones. Now, Iran has closed itself off to the Western press, making it difficult to get inside story from the ‘outside’.
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