“The polished documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer champions the three members of the Russian feminist collective Pussy Riot, whose conviction in 2012 became an international cause célèbre.
“Directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, the film briefly sketches in the history of Pussy Riot while focusing on the fallout from the group’s most famous performance: its 40-second takeover of the main Russian Orthodox cathedral in Moscow in February 2012, when the group’s members shouted an obscene anti-Kremlin song to the horrified congregation. The film is sympathetic to the arrested women and their cause but makes clear how offensive their brief, loud, foulmouthed provocation was to the faithful.
“The film provides a flood of images that will be new to most American viewers, including scenes from the women’s trial. One defendant, Maria Alyokhina, calls the proceedings “this horrific theater,” and the filmmakers use newsreels to reinforce the obvious connection to Stalinist show trials. There are also frequent scenes of Pussy Riot’s performances, rehearsals and meetings. The film smoothly establishes the contrast between their awkward, impassioned idealism and the cynical machinery of the state.
“The film’s most touching moment comes when Ms. Samutsevich’s father displays a photo of her leaving her sentencing, head held high, and says that he gives it as a gift to his friends. It makes him proud, he says, that they know he has such a daughter.”- New York Times
