Pussy Riot, a totally talentless, self-righteous punk not-rock group — who are better at self-promotion than Donald Trump — are the subjects of an endless documentary on HBO about their feminist courage.
In case you don’t know them, Pussy Riot is as ridiculous an overblown Russian phenomenon as Anna Chapman, the idiot “spy,” whose biggest accomplishment was getting invited to a city council fundraiser — something everyone else avoids like bird flu.
Pussy Riot, a group of four Russian performance artists, made world-wide headlines when, in 2012, they were arrested for what they considered punk rock feminist performance art.
Were they arrested for having naked anal sex in a public museum, which one of them did at eight months pregnant? No. Apparently when that didn’t work, she and her band of merry women decided to jump up on the altar of Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, where they donned knitted face masks, banged their guitars and scream-sang “God s–t!” — a phrase they got from a friend.
The whole world —and Madonna — was outraged they were arrested. After all, they were just expressing themselves. No — actually they weren’t. Let’s be honest, they were acting like bully Bolsheviks, like the ones who destroyed Christ the Savior Cathedral. For 70 years, the Russian people were forbidden from practicing their religion.
These brats seemed to have no sense of the importance of freedom of religion and kept trying to make the case for separation of church and state. One was raised by a rabid communist grandmother, so you can understand where the sentiment comes from. But for those who were unable to practice their beliefs for seven decades and rebuilt the cathedral from scratch — it had been torn down — this is a sacred place.
Yeah, yeah, I can hear you all now screaming about how I am not a feminist and that I must clearly be a religious fanatic. In fact, I disagree with what organized religion tends to do to spirituality, having raised a child alone, worked two jobs most of the time and never backed down from a fight. This is about understanding and respecting what others fought so hard to regain. You don’t have to agree with it, but you can’t desecrate it, either.
“P
ussy Riot: A Punk Prayer,” takes us from the women’s earlier protests to the near-desecration of the cathedral to their arrest and imprisonment.
Meantime, between arrest and trial, these oppressed women were locked in a cage in court — but given full access to the media at all times.
This doc is an answer only to the band’s prayers for never-ending publicity.