Queendom

Director: Agniia Galdanova

Agniia Galdanova’s powerful documentary is a striking portrait of intolerance and individual activism following Gena Marvin through several months in which her personality, choices, physical expression and very connection to the society in which she lives is broken down. Living in Russia, Galdanova moves between the seemingly metropolitan experience of Moscow and the rural Magadan where Gena grew up, while exploring the consistent and consistently violent message of non-belonging experienced by Gena on a daily basis. Intense and filled with pathos, Queendom paints a terrifying picture of intolerance.

Screened at the BFI London Film Festival 2023 and now in cinemas, Galdanova’s 95-minute film has three chapters, the first of which established Gena’s Avant Garde fashion style and how that translates into activism both on the streets of Moscow and through video art posted online and incorporated into Galdanova’s story. Gena’s approach to drag and the characters she creates reflect a non-binary identity expressed through elaborate haute couture costume and make-up which Galdanova capures, deliberately blurring the boundaries between real life, character and moments of performance that are constantly in conflict during the films as the very different side to Gena are presented.

The second part of the film is an incredibly personal look at the family life between performances as the human experience of Gena is challenged repeatedly by uncomfortable and often devastating phonecalls with her grandparents. This section of Galdanova’ biographical approach takes the anonymous hostility and threatening behaviour directed at Gena in persona and online by strangers she encounters and filters it through the family structure and the ambivalent support and care she receives. The persistent voice of Gena’s grandfather and the implacable refusal to accept or support his grandchild is often painful to observe, and while this generational shift in Russian society is the bedrock of Galdanova’s film, the stinging impact of these repeated conversations are hard to watch.

Yet, Galdanova also captures Gena’s determination to make statements about injustice and homophobia through her art and the camera follow Gena through the streets, capturing the stares and interactions of others, most of which are negative including not being permitted to enter a park and being warned to go home for her own safety by the police. As a character study, Queendom is layered and revealing, even admirable as Gena faces that hostility head on in the knowledge that every public appearance could become inflamed. The cumulative toll that takes on Gena is well explained, as is the sense that this is someone who knows who they are even if others refuse to accept it.

At screenings in the comparatively liberal UK, it is eye-opening to see first hand the tensions in Russian society and the unabashed attacks that Gena endures and staged against the early days of the Ukraine invasion, the incendiary nature of political activism is stark. But drag and performance art affects all areas of Gena’s life from the interactions with her family to access to education and basic safety on the streets. In the face of all that pressure, it is heartening to see someone still fighting so hard to be who they are.

Queendom is in UK and Irish cinemas from 1 December.