Putin and Pope – Gone Insane

This harrowing film, narrated by Matt Bomer, takes the viewer into modern-day Russia and the state of siege its LGBT citizens exist under. Sanctioned by the State and carried out most viciously — in physical terms — by vigilante squads who torture and beat gay men, these despicable attacks are then posted online to fully destroy the victims’ professional and personal lives and sense of selves.

At the heart of Steele’s film is the scene described above, featuring the gay man who has been inveigled to a St. Petersburg apartment where a bunch of cowardly, moronic, violence-loving vigilantes from the group “Occupy Pedophilia” trap gay men — after making contact on social media on the pretext of arranging a sexual hook-up.

“Don’t fuck with us. Stay down,” the man is told, as the thugs encircle him.

This brilliant and extremely upsetting documentary was originally shown in Britain at the time of the Sochi Olympics, and helped focus attention on Russia’s appalling treatment of LGBTs. Now its American premiere will again place a much-needed international spotlight on Putin and his state-sanctioned homophobia. LGBTs in Russia have “never been so under siege,” says Steele, “and so hunted.” Attacks on LGBT have risen; public feeling — encouraged by Putin and the authorities — is hostile towards them.

Homosexuality may have been decriminalized in Russia 21 years ago, and it may have been removed from the country’s list of mental illnesses, but religious institutions and social attitudes are long frozen in antipathy. A third of Russians believe gay people should be medically or psychologically treated.

As well as by the vigilante gangs, and a generally hostile public, LGBTs are being targeted in terms of discriminatory legislation; the most iniquitous being a “propaganda” law, which forbids the dissemination of material of a positive or neutral nature around homosexuality to those under 18 years old.

Putin and the thugs on the street — like homegrown bigots — freely conflate homosexuality and pedophilia to exacerbate public fear and prejudice towards gay people.

Steele’s film opens in the middle-class home in St Petersburg of a man named Timor. He seems so gentle with his 7-year-old son, that it comes as a surprise to discover he is a ringleader of a group of vicious bigots called Parents of Russia who “expose” gay people on the Internet, with banners across their faces to have them fired from their jobs. His particular focus is lesbian and gay teachers, and their supporters, who he does not want near children.

Timor’s homophobia is virulent. We watch as he and his friend Dimitri head off to a lesbian and gay film festival. There, they hand out shiny bags to participants: these are decoy pretty gifts, because inside are messages saying, “Kill yourself and cleanse the earth of your wickedness.” The men laugh as they opine that, “Filth like them should not exist. Instead of pushing them out of Russia, we should make them take their own lives.”

“We offer heterosexual therapy, we offer beautiful friendship,” they shout at two lesbians walking into the film festival.

There is so little for LGBTs in Russia anyway — they cannot demonstrate together, any gathering can be disrupted like this, hook-ups online could be vigilantes looking to beat you up — that it comes as little surprise when a fake bomb threat, called in to the film festival, destroys that evening’s meager opportunity for gathering together and entertainment.

Timor is overjoyed at the malign trouble he and his friends have caused. The security guards at the festival only turn on him and his mates when the men insult their own masculinity. “This is Russia, this is hell for homosexuals,” says Timor, and he is extremely happy about that.

We see snatches of the vigilante films you may have seen before online: men kicked in the face, punched, beaten, insulted, laughed at as they are humiliated. As with most bullies, it’s never one-on-one: these supposedly big, butch straight Russian men need a group of accomplices to torture just one gay man. In one video, a Human Rights Watch researcher tells us, they force a gay man to rape himself with a bottle.

One gay man is interviewed after he was attacked by a group of homophobes at a discreet party at a community center. He has been left blind in one eye. “A hunting season is open, and we are the hunted,” he says. Successful prosecutions of homophobic attacks are rare (they are not classified as hate crimes); the attackers go free. The police and authorities are on their side, after all.