Chechnya is today an autonomous republic of the Russian Federation, subdued and pacified by force after centuries of rebellion against Moscow, where a president protected by the Kremlin holds absolute power with almost limitless support. The artist knows the complex, tormented life of ordinary Chechens well: he has crisscrossed the country, stopping in cities and villages, in mountains and forests, and the volume contains neither majestic views nor the picturesque.