QUEENDOM, remarkable portrait of a fearless activist and queer performer

Russian queer performance artist Gena Marvin’s incredible courage – and costumes – are on vivid display in Agniia Galdanova’s absorbing documentary. By WENDY IDE, The Observer, December 3, 2023

Protest takes many forms. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, some brave souls took to the streets of Moscow to voice their horror at the war, and were met with batons and police brutality. Radical queer performance artist Gena Marvin took a different approach. Wearing platform boots, body paint and wrapped in barbed wire, she walked the streets of Moscow in a stark, silent statement against the war. To call Gena a drag artist fails to capture just how subversive and courageous her public “performances” are. Her otherworldly costumes, created from junk and tape, show the influence of Leigh Bowery; her fearlessness evokes the punk provocation of Pussy Riot. But ultimately, as Agniia Galdanova’s remarkable observational documentary shows, Gena is her own extraordinary creation.

GENA MARVIN defiantly marches on the streets of Moscow dressed in 3-colour
scotch tape In protest against alexey navalny's arrest