First Russian LGBT+ TV show tells story of gay liberation group’s accidental visit to Soviet Union

‘Red Rainbow’ takes its cue from the moment the Soviet leadership mistook German gay rights movement for a Communist party faction, as Oliver Carroll reports from Moscow

The tragicomic story of Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin’s 10 days in the Soviet Union is the focus of Red Rainbow (Rüdiger Trautsch)

The year is 1978, and possibly the most unlikely delegation in history has arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport as guests of the Soviet Central Committee.

It isn’t hard to recognise the travelling party as they disembark the Lufthansa flight from West Berlin. Two debonair young men are walking down the VIP arrivals corridor, tenderly holding on to each other by intertwined little fingers. A few steps behind them is an older, chubbier female friend with Down’s syndrome, clutching a slobbering English bulldog with comparable affection.

The three left-leaning delegates of Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW) have arrived in Moscow with the very best, comradely intentions at heart. But they are also oblivious to the drama that lies in front of them: unaware of the bureaucratic error that saw them mistakenly invited as Soviet guests of honour; and of the gruesome, criminalised reality of LGBT+ life behind the iron curtain.