Gena, a young Russian queer artist, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests against the government in the streets of Moscow, before and during the Ukrainian invasion. Born and raised in Magadan, an icy outpost of the Soviet gulag, she stages radical public performances that become a new form of art and activism, which she calls ‘drag activism’.
Agniia Galdanova’s impressive film is one of uninterrupted tension, a terrible plunge into the daily life of Gena, an uncompromising artist who never gives up on what she has taken so long to develop and proclaim. This documentary is all the more poignant because it tells the story of a pre-Ukrainian invasion Russia, with its deafening rejection of others.
CineRebels Award - Honorable Mention, Munich Film Festival, 2023, de
Documentary Feature, Special Mention, L.A. Outfes, 2023, us
Best Documentary, Special Mention, Athens International Film Festival, 2029, gr
International Documentary Film, Special Mention, Best Film, Audience Award, Zurich Film Festival, 2029, ch
Agniia Galdanova
Born in Saint Petersburg in 1987, Agniia Galdanova studied journalism in Moscow while writing for various publications. In 2012, she obtained a degree in film directing in Berlin, and went on to make a number of music videos and short films, including Something in You, Something in Me as part of the German-Israeli “Out of Place” programme. In 2020, she shot her first documentary film, One Step Forward, One Step Back. Queendom is her 2nd documentary.
