Embattled Russian art punks get in-depth documentary
“I believe in what John Cassavetes said” says Maxim Pozdorovkin director of Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer the documentary chronicling the trial of the Russian performance-art rabble-rousers. “If you’re not arguing about [the message of] the movie then as a filmmaker you haven’t done your job.”
That’s Pozdorovkin’s way of saying that Pussy Riot isn’t meant to be a hard-and-fast political statement. Actually he says his goal was to transport audiences directly into Pussy Riot’s trial and open up a dialogue (and potentially an argument) about them. “One of the things I believe about a documentary is that it isn’t about having a position” he says. “I have my own political beliefs but when you’re making a film it’s a constructivist process — it’s not about what you believe but what works best together.
“It’s not ideologically driven” he adds. “When you grow up in the Soviet Union as I did you become allergic to propaganda. In the U.S. there’s a lot of high-profile famous documentaries” — a few of which he names but asks us not to print — “that I share beliefs with but are straight-up propaganda films.”
So no Pussy Riot doesn’t take the easy route: Unlike the swaths of media the group produced after they performed at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour the film doesn’t overtly attack the Russian Orthodox Church or the Putin government. Instead using candid court footage Pozdorovkin creates a present-tense film which he says lets the women do the talking — if the trio seems courageous or charming or raises questions about Russia’s attitudes towards feminism and “Russia’s first true leftist generation” it’s not because of the filmmaker’s agenda.
“The story was really misrepresented in the media” he says. “In Russia they were seen as anti-religion. In the West [there was the belief] that they opposed Putin and that’s why they were in jail. It’d be easy to make them martyrs but that’s less interesting. The story was more dramatic and complex than has been presented. They might be more radical than most people in the West are comfortable with — they did things that not only would’ve gotten you arrested in Russia but would get you arrested in other countries. They’re performance artists and vulgarity is part of their tactics.
“They force a certain dialogue — they forced people to talk about feminism about performance art.”
And their performative penchant packs a wallop which is precisely why they’re such intriguing subjects for a film. Pozdorovkin cites Russian 1920s avant-garde art Austrian-Viennese Actionism and the showboating penchant of punk as the trio’s formative influences. As the director notes they’re performance artists who take the guise of a band. “The film opens up on a Bertolt Brecht quote” he adds. “It says that art is not a mirror for life but a hammer. Pussy Riot is performance art which is measured by the social resonance it has and the debate it provokes.”
Pozdorovkin’s role then was to make the whole thing enjoyable. “A movie should take you to an incredible place. My favourite compliment about the film is ‘It was a great watch!’ The experience should be good but there’s so much more to know about it — you get through the film yes but you end up being impressed with their bravery and radicalism.”
