Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is a Russian-language documentary about the trial of feminist punk rock performance artists Pussy Riot. They performed inside of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior for 30 seconds. They took over the altar and condemned the Orthodox Church's role in President Putin's government. Three members were detained by police and charged with a very broad reading of a statute designed to protect against actual attacks on religious freedom in Russia.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer offers a mostly linear look into the rise of Pussy Riot, the protest, their detainment, their trial, and the first wave of the appeals process. It's also an extremely subjective look at the case to expand the message of "Mother of God, Drive Putin Away."
Filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin make no apologies for what Pussy Riot did in the cathedral. No apology would ever satisfy the critics of the performance or the artists themselves. The audience is never made to question if any part of the charges filed against the three members of the much larger collective have any merit because they are immediately dismissed by the film.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is a documentary that is also a protest piece. In telling the story of three political prisoners, Lerner and Pozdorovkin offer a broader platform for the criticisms that led to the protest performance itself. If the Orthodox Church, Putin, and the Russian court system refuse to allow any aspect of Pussy Riot's stance on the case to weigh into national discourse, why should a documentary about Pussy Riot give a voice to those so intent on silencing dissent? It's an excellent conceit that provides a brand new perspective on an issue defined by quick soundbytes in the international press.
The artists on trial call themselves Nadia, Katia, and Masha. They believe in equality. They believe in the secular constitution of Russia. They believe that people are free to believe what they want to believe as long as they don't violate the rights of others.
They also believe that Vladimir Putin is oppressing the people by using the Orthodox Church to quash any question of his policies. They believe their country is worse off now than it was at the end of the Communist era and Putin is rapidly making things worse. They believe that the Church has a stronger say in the fate of the nation than the people and they want all people, especially women, to have a say.
The most illuminating part of Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is the actual look at Nadia, Katia, and Masha's previous work as activists and performance artists. We know them as the balaclava-clad punk rockers giving guerrilla concerts in public and private places. The context was lost as soon as they were placed in handcuffs because everything came down to whether or not their performance was legal or even worthy of being defended as a performance.
Essentially, two of the three women in the group have a strong background in performance art. The third member on trial largely comes from a political activism background. They use the skills they've developed as artists, their extensive knowledge of politics and history, and the bravery that comes from finding a group of people equally passionate about a subject as you are to launch a feminist political movement that anyone can be a part of. Their hand-written statements throughout the trial clearly show their intelligence, their creativity, and their refusal to compromise their own beliefs.
As Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer clearly shows, if the intent of these charges was to quash protest and political descent, it failed. The latter part of the documentary shows the global impact of the trial of Pussy Riot, even bringing up when Madonna performed "Like a Virgin" wearing a balaclava in Moscow. This documentary celebrates activism and performance art as a way to condemn the state-driven message surrounding political descent in modern Russia. It's a strong exploration of an artistic and political ideology pulled from a brief but eventful protest in a cathedral.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer is currently streaming on Netflix.