A haunting and visually arresting documentary that follows Gena Marvin, a 21-year-old non-binary performance artist in Russia, whose surreal, creature-like drag becomes a form of public protest. Set during the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the film captures the suffocating atmosphere of rising authoritarianism—where fear, conformity, and the omnipresence of police make any visible dissent dangerous.

Through handmade costumes fashioned from tape, trash, and barbed wire, Gena stages silent yet provocative performances in Moscow’s streets, subways, and public squares. Each performance is a confrontation—an act of queer resistance in a country trying to erase queer existence. The film doesn’t flinch from showing the constant threats Gena faces, from police harassment to public hostility, while also offering a moving portrait of vulnerability, imagination, and sheer courage.

After increasing repression and the outbreak of war, Gena fled Russia in 2022 and found asylum in Paris, where she continues to create and perform. Her visionary art has since reached global platforms, including walking in Rick Owens’s 2024 runway show, while remaining grounded in the same political urgency and resistance that shaped her early work.

Queendom is a powerful reminder that in the face of violence and silence, even a single body in the street—adorned in drag, refusing to disappear—can become a revolution. It’s a must-watch for those interested in queer resistance, performance as protest, and what it means to live and create under state oppression.