Launching Russia’s first anti-homophobia awareness campaign

We Will Become Better

We built the PR strategy and launched the short film ‘We will Become Better’ for Amsterdam production company HALAL.

Part short film, part music video, and all awareness campaign - this powerful piece of craft shone a light on homophobia in Russia, but through the lens of forbidden love.

As well as telling this story we highlighted the film’s creators, who showed peerless creativity and courage – challenging mainstream anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes in Russia, even despite facing risks of reprisals.

“You can be gay in Russia, but you can’t talk about it openly...”

The film ‘We Will Become Better’ shows two men whose love is all but forbidden. Russia’s anti-gay laws and mainstream homophobia mean that their relationship is threatened by censorship and violence, even deemed unconstitutional. 

These attitudes have long run rife across the country, with recent accounts showing a majority of Russians feel negatively towards LGBT people, with almost one out of five wanting gay and lesbian people “eliminated”, and reports of extreme homophobic violence emerging from the former Soviet Union.

And this is all endorsed by the state. 2013’s ‘gay propaganda’ law notoriously criminalised representations of LGBTQ+ people or relationships. Then, in the summer of 2020, a draft of amendments to the constitution by Putin included a ‘ban’ of gay marriage, explicitly defining marriage as between a man and woman only.

When these changes were boosted by extremely offensive anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda, Latvian director Andzej Gavriss and Russian writer Evgeny Primachenko set about offering a new perspective.

Expertly choreographed and edited, the film revolves around two dancers’ performances, who are physically separated but seem to collide and interact, painting the ups and downs of their relationship – ultimately embracing in a dark cavern, the only place where they can show their love.

It was creatively genius, but also necessarily cautious. “The film doesn’t say people are inherently bad,” clarifies director Andzej Gavriss. ‘It doesn’t blame anyone. It’s pure love. In Russia this is a sensitive and highly controversial topic - but if viewers feel for the couple and feel their love, hopefully we can change their minds.”

75.6 million online readership

2,76 million coverage views

Thanks to the stellar creative and our detailed research and personal interviews, we achieved loud and glowing reports across a diverse media portfolio: a feverish write-up in Pink News, an interview in Creative Review, an exclusive in Adweek.

Plus numerous write-ups in international and German press, all helping to amplify the film’s great work – but also shining a light on an issue too often ignored or forgotten.

See the Coverage Book press report with all the articles here