PUSSY RIOT - A PUNK PRAYER

Opening text: "Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it". The quote comes from German playwright Bertolt Brecht and, rather audaciously, is used on this occasion in relation to Pussy Riot...

On February 21st 2012, feminist punk band Pussy Riot sprinted into Moscow's Orthodox Church and started an impromptu performance in front of its altar. They managed to spit out 41 seconds of their protest song "Punk Prayer" (the refrain to which is "Shit! Shit! It's God's shit!") before officials removed them.

The court case that followed became a farce of mammoth proportions, but is notable for bringing International awareness to Russia's stringent anti-authority intolerance and the political unrest that simmers beneath its austere surface. While the Western world struggled to comprehend why a small group of young females ranting out anti-Putin obscenities in public would get anyone's back up, it seemed that these women were being vilified in their homeland. Just check out the church group midway through who argue that Pussy Riot would've been burned as witches a few hundred years ago.

Three of the women concerned were held on trial, and have become the focus of this fascinating documentary: wife and mother Masha, remarkably confident Nadia and the older, more socially awkward Katia.

This is their story. Principally, it's an account of their court case. But, in a telling sign of the times, virtually everything before, during and after has been captured on film. From rehearsals of the 'crime', through the act itself, to the arrest and the trial afterwards, the amount of up-close-and-personal footage on offer here is nothing short of startling. Such is this world we live in these days, where folk are inclined to capture EVERYTHING they do on camera.

As such, this documentary from co-directors Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin echoes recent fare such as the excellent THE IMPOSTER in so much as it boasts a strong and detailed narrative which carries with it a dramatic pull worthy of rivalling any decent fictional drama.

We first meet the girls via recorded prison testimonies. It has to be said, at this point - just after their arrests - they come across as naive and arrogant. My earliest thought was that all each one needed was a good hard flick on the nose accompanied by a stern "grow up, you silly cow!". I mean, all this baloney they spout about emancipating women from their expected roles in life etc - all perfectly valid and well-intended, but tosh when transferred into the mouths of smug, well-fed studenty types.

Anyhow, we get a clearer picture of what Pussy Riot are about when the film reveals that they formed in August 2011 - on the same day that Vladimir Putin was elected as president - and shows us some archive material of them performing protest songs guerrilla-style at various public locations (in the centre of Red Square being a notable one). The fact the band chose to record each one of these turns on video is a huge bonus for the filmmakers. The idea behind the 'band' (more of a rotating collective) it seems was to turn up unannounced in a public place and play until they got shooed along. They were designed, despite their feminist leanings, as little more than a prank.

Filmed while the girls were in custody - they were refused bail at their initial pre-trial hearing, on decidedly flimsy grounds - the filmmakers are also fortunate that all of their court appearances and subsequent press conferences (some even conducted while the girls languish in unnecessary cages outside the courtrooms) were caught on film. So Nadia, Katia and Masha are still very much the stars of PUNK PRAYER despite no exclusive interviews with them.

Added insight into their backgrounds does come from their parents. Nadia's dad Andrey is cool: he accepted their juvenile protests from the start, even coming up with the "It's God's shit!" refrain from their most well-known song. Katia's father, Stanislav, is a little more sceptical but no less loyal to his daughter. But it's Natalia, Masha's mother, who tugs at the heart strings - she doesn't understand her daughter's convictions and understandably worries about the threats from social services concerning custody of Masha's daughter in light of her imprisonment.

Masha's husband Peter is a staunch supporter of her cause, while the band's lawyers Marc and Nicolai are not above bringing her young daughter Gera to the courthouse whenever they know the press will be around. Other than this heart-tugging tactic though, this pair are pretty ineffective. When their case eventually comes to trial, Marc is overheard telling the girls "we've already heard that you'll be killed in Siberia". Nice.

Facing a seven year sentence, it's only when the trial gathers steam that the cocksure grins are wiped from the three girls' faces and they start to speak more candidly to the court about their horror at causing offence and how innocent their motives were. Masha's most profound moment comes when she observes that "principals, politics, morals all fade into the background" while lamenting the distance between her and her family. Lerner and Pozdorovkin have edited their footage in a manner that allows this transition from arrogance to accountability to come without contrivance. It's also well-timed: feeling empathy towards this up-until-this-point haughty trio was proving difficult.

Having said that, while it's comforting to see a little remorse from these women, there is enough footage capturing them revelling in the mid-trial excitement of offers from publishers, record producers and so on which they respond to with what can only be described as conceited glee. All Pussy Riot ever wanted was attention - and they got it, big style.

PUNK PRAYER is a quietly compelling film. Its 88 minutes race by, thanks to meticulous editing that sifts intelligently through what must've been hundreds of hours of footage to build a true-life storyline that matches the pace and twists of any Hollywood thriller.

Cultivating footage and quotes from YouTube, Russian TV, Twitter, newsreels, fresh interviews, prison interrogations, radio soundbites and beyond, this is as detailed an analogy of the embarrassing furore created around the Pussy Riot trial as you're ever likely to see.

In a sense, it's a shame that this is such a likeable, watchable film: these girls don't deserve the attention. They prance about in colourful dresses and even more colourful balaclavas, desperately vying for attention with childish pop-punk tracks such as "Putin Pissed Himself". The results are like the Spice Girls covering an Atari Teenage Riot song.

But politically, socially and culturally, this is a tale that needs to be told - and I can't imagine a better way to take in this alternately funny and sobering true-life tale than through Lerner and Pozdorovkin's rather excellent film.

That's despite its tendency to accompany footage with misplaced "thriller" music and boast the overall look and feel of a TV movie (hey, it is an HBO production after all).

The film hits selected UK cinemas on 5th July 2013. For more information, check out the official website here

Review by Stuart Willis