In Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Queendom,’ An Extraordinary Russian Drag Performer Defies Convention, Risking Life And Liberty

In January, the Siberian city of Magadan averages a high of 9 degrees F, its port on the Pacific kept accessible only with the aid of icebreakers. It’s a cold place measured by temperature and by history – in Soviet times, the town served as a transit point to the Gulag. Even today, more than a generation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, stepping out of line, defying the pressure to conform, can invite hostility or outright violence.

Imagine, then, growing up in such a place as a gender nonconforming person, who dares to express herself through drag performance art. That is the reality for Jenna Marvin, the protagonist of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary Queendom. Jenna embraces politically charged expression and flouts convention despite the risk of harassment, arrest or physical assault.

“Knowing where she’s coming from, she’s had such a difficult childhood, and what the person that she was aspiring to become and that she has become — that is so inspiring for so many people,” observes Queendom producer Igor Myakotin, who grew up in Magadan as well. “Our goal from the very beginning [was] for the Queer community to see this film and to let them know that even if you don’t fit in or you feel like you don’t belong, you do fit in, you do belong. And there is a community for you.”

The film shows Jenna out in public in costumes that make her appear like an alien lifeform – her eyebrows and head shaved and coated in white makeup, her lower limbs sealed in duct tape, her slender, reed-like body elevated on six-inch heels.

“It’s not taking 30 minutes” to get into such a costume, notes director Agniia Galdanova. “It’s taking about three, four or five hours. And, also, a lot of friends are helping to wrap [her] up. Suddenly, there is this creature… From there, the magic starts.”

Often, Marvin came up with performances on the spot as DoP Ruslan Fedotov filmed – for instance, writhing in a glutinous pool of mud.

“We almost never discussed or planned anything she’s going to do, how she’s going to move, any of that,” Galdanova recalls. “In the mud, it was completely just by accident. We found this place and decided to do something. But when it was a bit more prepared, it was always her. We were waiting when it’s going to click and then we were ready to capture it… She has so much pain inside and she been through so much. I saw it just coming out and it’s at the same time beautiful but also full of anxiety and pain.”

Other more mundane moments become tense, as when Jenna – in a costume with lingerie touches – enters a supermarket. She is eventually accosted by security who boot her out, telling her, “You’re disturbing the peace. There’s kids and there’s elderly [here].”

Home for Jenna doesn’t provide much respite. The film shows the occasionally disputatious relationship between Marvin and her grandparents, who raised her. At one point, her grandfather calls her a “f****t.” Grandma seems more sympathetic, referring to Jenna as “my little oddball.”

Despite the regular flare up of conflict between them, it’s clear grandchild and grandparents love each other deeply. The grandparents’ anxiety stems from a fear for Jenna’s safety, which only increases after she moves to Moscow – eight hours’ flight away – to pursue studies. And to continue performing in public despite the risk.

“She says that drag is always political, it’s always exaggerated. It’s a hyperbole. It’s something that attracts attention. And if you have this platform, you should use it for good,” recounts Myakotin. “It was also inevitable that her art would become political in the repressive and dangerous country like Russia, especially since the laws were getting harsher” against the LGBTQ community.

Queendom documents the growing clampdown on freedom of expression that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In November 2023, over a year after the invasion, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled the “international LGBT movement” an “extremist organization.”

This was in line with a Kremlin attempt to frame the conflict in Ukraine as “a proxy war… a war with the West, and that LGBT propaganda is the West’s idea to spread their ‘corrupt values,’” Myakotin explains. According to this concocted narrative, LGBT expression represents a threat to Russians and that by outlawing it, “they’re protecting Russians this way.”

Queendom producer Myakotin relocated to the U.S. a number of years ago. Galdanova took up residence in France, leaving behind her native Russia as it became an increasingly perilous place for Queer people or perhaps anyone perceived as different.

“I was beaten up by two men on the street in the heart of Moscow, right in front of the main police station, because they mistook me for a transgender person,” she says. “And, also, they were shaming me that I’m an Asian person. I was standing there on the street talking on the phone. It was not even nighttime. And right after one phrase, I got a fist in my face and then I just fell down unconscious.”

With Jenna’s life and liberty in danger as well, she was forced to flee Russia, seeking asylum in France. For the most part, life in Paris has been better for her. However, Galdanova recalls a recent incident in which Marvin appeared in costume in the middle of crowds on a Paris street following a soccer match.

“Jenna was smart enough — she prepared her costume having like a big belly and a big ass, thinking if she’s going to get beaten or anything that will at least [provide protection],” Galdanova says. “I was filming, and she told me, ‘No matter what’s happening, don’t interfere. I’m ready for whatever.’ Then the anger started to grow really fast. They started to kick her; they started to slap her. And I was filming it, and I was looking at her. She was completely disconnected from this world. And then somebody stuck a firecracker in her belly and then pushed her on the ground. It was terrible.”

Galdanova adds, “We are talking so much about how Russia is dangerous and how it is violent against Queer people or any kind of people. Honestly, for sure it’s safer and more tolerant in France. But this event showed me that it’s happening everywhere, and as well in the U.S.”

Galdanova and Myakotin recall a time in Russia, in the years after the collapse of the Soviet empire, when the country moved towards greater acceptance of LGBTQ people.

“We all thought in the early 2000s that Russia is on a great track, and it was really a happy time for a few years,” Myakotin says. “There was even a rainbow flag on the cover of one of the major magazines back then, and what happened in such a short time is scary. But I feel like we have to keep resisting no matter what.”

He adds, “Queendom is really a tale for America or for other countries as well. When there’s a democracy, you think it’s for good, but actually it can slip away very easily before your eyes.”