Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
By Kit Macdonald
If things were bad in Russia in 2012/13, when Pussy Riot and directors Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkinmade this brave documentary, they're infinitely worse now. The feminist punk rock group were warning of the true menace of Vladimir Putin and the system that surrounds him for years before the world really sat up and took notice, and this film captures them in full flow on that noble mission, making a provocative protest in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012, followed by the arrest, trial and imprisonment of three band members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich.
The women were charged with "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and sentenced to two years in prison, prompting international outrage, though clearly not enough of it to prevent the many disasters of the following decade. As well as being a warning from history, it's a reminder of the unmatched courage of a band who, by virtue of unfortunate circumstances if nothing else, were always about a lot more than music.