Film Festival Review: Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer

Directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin, Mike Lerner

Russia/UK

Despite lacking direct access to the three arrested members of Russian performance art group Pussy Riot, Russian director Maxim Pozdorovkin and his co-director Mike Lerner have managed to craft something shocking and marvellous out of long, observational scenes in court- rooms, archive footage, and interviews with the parents of Nadia, Katia and Masha, who were arrested after a shambolic, one-minute performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. I seethed, wept and applauded as the film unfolded, from the father who tried to discourage his daughter but ended up helping her with song lyrics, to the guy in the “Orthodoxy or Death” t-shirt.

Especially riveting are the powerful, funny and disarmingly clear statements that the women themselves make. If you think you know the Pussy Riot story just because you’ve been following it in your twitter feed, see this film. If you don’t really “get” performance art, see this film. If you just like looking at beautiful Russian women for an hour or so… see this film.