Reka Valerik — FranceBelgium — 2020 — 51’

Khavaj, a young MMA (Mixed martial art) fighter, fled Chechnya when his brother discovered his homo-sexuality and promised to kill him, under the persecution of Kadyrov’s regime. In Brussels, facing the shock of exile, he is struck by mutism. The only link that he keeps with Chechnya are the vocal messages that his mother sends him. The film traces Khavaj’s first months in Belgium. Forced to live in total anonymity to escape the Chechnyan diaspora, he will try to build a new identity.