21-year-old non-binary performance artist Gena creates extravagant creations for her performances and social media accounts using duct tape, scrap materials, and make-up. On unbelievably high heels, she roams through the streets and metro stations of Moscow like an alien, protesting the war in Ukraine and violence against the LGBTQI+ community. In a country where being openly different is quickly seen as clandestine homosexual propaganda, this is life-threatening.
In Queendom, winner of the NEXT:WAVE Award at CPH:Dox, we follow Gena from her birthplace Magadan – a city in the far east of Russia, notorious for its gulag past – to Moscow and witness the difficulties she encounters daily. We see her in drag, as a student at a 'Beauty Academy', and listen in when she calls her grandparents, who raised her. Their poignant conversations reveal both misunderstanding and unconditional love.
Images of Gena's dark and evocative performances punctuate the story, adding an extra emotional layer. Sometimes they are almost literally breathtaking.