Really Surprised!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

RELEASED IN 2013 and directed by Mike Lerner & Maxim Pozdorovkin, "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer" is a documentary about the feminist/anti-Putin Russian punk rock collective, Pussy Riot, and the arrest & trial of three of its main members (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich) for their offensive protest "performance" at a Moscow cathedral in 2012 wherein they were charged with hooliganism motivated by enmity toward a religious group and disturbing the social order.I have an obvious message for these three women (aged 22, 23 and 29 respectively at the time of the events): If you don't want to go to jail don't enact hateful criminal protests. Let me put it this way: What if several conservative Christians visited whatever dive they "perform" at and carried out a mocking, hostile rant against them and their ilk? They'd be incensed and immediately put a stop to it, not to mention press charges to prevent it from happening again.Speaking of "performing," the girls' music is laughably trite punk ditties. Separated from the political hype, their cacophonies wouldn't register even a blip on the punk/rock/metal barometer.A couple of the females are asked what they're protesting against and one of them says they're objecting to the (supposed) Russian expectation of women to have babies and do little else in society. But (1.) no one's forcing her or anyone else to have babies and (2.) the movie itself shows women in all kinds of significant professions in Russia, including two judges, a prominent lawyer and police officers. It's a classic case of rebel without a cause. If they don't like Putin, fine, vote against him and look into becoming a politician. If you don't like the conservative sway in current Russian culture, then do your part to respectfully influence society to your point of view, which would include offering a positive example of your (supposedly superior) belief system.Instead, these women opted for outrageous acts in their 3-year protest against the Russian government, culminating in the sacrilegious incident at the Russian Orthodox cathedral: They stuck poultry up their you-know-whats in supermarkets, spray-painted vulgar graffiti on bridges, staged an unbelievable public orgy at a museum when Nadya was eight-months pregnant, which is actually shown in the movie for like 10 seconds (two clips). Seriously? In response, Putin expressed "I'm surprised they weren't arrested prior to this." So am I.The flick is evenhanded in that it lacks a biased narration and simply shows the actual footage, translating the Russian verbiage into English, with a smattering of interviews with parents, husbands and whoever. It's a fascinating documentary in that it reveals modern Russian culture, its predominant values and lunatic fringe. I was surprised to observe that the elder disciples of the Russian Orthodox Church resemble formidable American bikers more than anything else.Despite these positives, I'm not giving the film a higher rating because it foolishly sides with the girls. Which is baffling since anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that they got precisely what their doofus behavior deserved. If a group of conservatives in America did what these women did, but enacted toward liberal people & institutions, they'd be lambasted by the lamestream media and imprisoned for years for hooligan hate crimes. Of course loony libertines are notorious for their hypocritical double standards.THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 28 minutes.GRADE: C-

British producer and documentary filmmaker Mike Lerner and Russian producer and documentary filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin's documentary feature which they produced, premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section at the 29th Sundance Film Festival in 2013, was shot on locations in Russia and is a Russia-UK co-production. It tells the story about a Russian citizen in her twenties from a town called Norilsk, Russia named Nadezhda Andreevna Tolokonnikova who in the late 2000s joined a group called Voina with her husband named Pyotr Verzilov, a Russian citizen in her twenties from Moscow, Russia named Maria Vladimirovna Aliokhina whose favorite word as a child started with the letter U and consisted of five letters and a Russian citizen in her thirties from Moscow, Russia named Ykaterina Stanislavovna Samutsevich who became interested in something after reading French philosophers. Distinctly and subtly directed by documentary filmmakers Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, this quietly paced documentary which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the band members' point of view, draws an informative and humanistic portrayal of the front figures of a 21st century Punk rock protest band who made themselves known by conducting performances in public places like the Red Square without having asked for permission beforehand which is obligatory there, and whom after planning a new protest at the Russian parliament called State Duma and performing a protest against the union of state and church on the altar of a renowned cathedral in early 2012 aiming to take Christianity away from the official church and give it back to its origins was arrested, put on trial, convicted for hooliganism and relocated to expiate in penal colonies in Russia. While notable for its atmospheric milieu depictions and reverent cinematography by cinematographer Antony Butts, this narrative-driven story about a federal semi-presidential republic where the president is head of state and a generation who doesn't agree with the politics of the current regime and who practices oppositional art to voice their opinions, which through interviews with family members, attorneys, government officials, Russian citizens and Pussy Riot themselves describes a Russia where its people wishes to live in an ordinary country and which was made twenty-tree years after a German rock band sang the words: "The wind of change blows straight into the face of time …" contains a timely score by composer Simon Russell. This somewhat biographical, historic and remarkable testimony of real events which is set mostly in Russia in the 21st century and where the ruling government passes amendments as they please whilst a group of distinguishable Russian daughters and mothers who are against some of their political policies and with musical instruments, lyrics and balaclavas expresses their views regarding their country of origin which they think is depriving them of their entitlement to influence its fate, creates humorous though far from publicly respectful or lawfully justifiable works of art which has heart, humor, audacity and social intellect beyond its appearance, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, rhythmic continuity, trial and archival footage, photographs and comment by Masha: "It lives in the word. It will go on living because of glasnost." A dense and concentrated documentary feature.

I think it is very courageous of Pussy Riot to protest against Putin and his compact with the orthodox church. Although they were sentenced to a labor camp, they continued their protest against the Putin regime after they were amnestied. In a democratic society, different subjectives must be allowed and it is very important to document that people protest against suppression and propaganda in spite of personal dangers. Much of the film shows the proceedings against the group, and anyone who followed the trials knows the outcome. By the way - I found a very funny "documentation" about the true story of the release of Pussy Riot on you tube. It's named "free nadezhda". I hope more people in Russia realize the dangers of an autocratic regime.

This is the scariest movie I've ever seen. It features actual, real people so evil in mind that no fiction I've seen could replicate.The crazies said it best themselves: "What would they have done to them in the 16th century?". That's the time they live in. Sexism, discrimination, torture, thralldom and enforced religious servitude. That's their ideal society. These people are the real demons and true monsters of the human race. They should think long and hard about being lucky enough to have been born as a human being on earth, and what moral ethos should follow that.Instead, they claim the right to enslave an entire nation of people under a set of submissive, authoritarian and tyrannical principles. Not only is everyone not subscribing to this a "sinner", "witch", or "demon" but anyone giving it any sort any sort of criticism is a "blasphemer" fit only for the harshest penalty.Watch for yourself if you want to dwell into the horrors of a small-minded and reactionary society that exists to this day. I couldn't get through more than 3/4s of it before getting a very deep momentary depression. Pussy Riot are heroes for fighting this very real and extremely widespread and systematic oppression that so many of their countrymen help support (actively or passively).So to any Russians: Please don't stand by and let Putin make your country an Orwellian society come to life. Don't let these people who belong in insane asylums be the spokespersons of your country backed up by their cold-hearted leader. I don't blame you for being scared and wanting stability (though those problems will only increase with a real dictatorship), but if you're willing to fight back that's very admirable. I would surely flee into exile abroad if any opportunity presented itself, had I grown up there.