Pussy Riot’s New Video Targets Corruption in Putin’s Russia
Source: TIME
Elaborate set designs and choreography are not a hallmark of Pussy Riots music videos, at least not the ones that turned them into Russias most famous protest collective. More typically, the band has had no more than a few minutes to dance around on camera before Russian police, security guards or, in one case, a group of whip-wielding Cossack militiamen, shows up to break up their performances. Not so with the punks first foray into hip-hop.
Released on Wednesday, their latest clip offers a cutting takedown of corruption in President Vladimir Putins government, all filmed with relatively high production values in well-groomed sets around Moscow.
This required quite a bit of guile. In order to film in a Soviet-era banquet hall, the groups co-founder, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and her crew of back-up dancers, dressed up in the blue uniforms of Russian prosecutors, leading the owners of the venue to believe that a law enforcement convention was in progress. The torture scenes were somewhat easier to justify, as these were filmed in a former jail often used as a set for TV dramas.
But one of the props did raised some suspicion among the landlords who unwittingly let Pussy Riot use the former jail. When they saw the golden loaf of bread, a symbol of corruption in the former Soviet Union, they sort of understood that something wasnt right, says Tolokonnikovas husband, Pyotr Verzilov. Still, the filming was allowed to go on, and the end result (a collaboration with David Sitek of the American band TV on the Radio) affirmed the groups knack for jabbing the Kremlin where it hurts. In this case, the primary target was Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, who has lately become the weakest link in Putins chain of command.
Read more: http://time.com/4205782/pussy-riots-new-video-targets-corruption-in-putins-russia/
LiberalLovinLug
(14,164 posts)We need to support these women. You may not dig the music, but Putin hates it even more. Russia's Donald Trump, only scarier. PR is more of a protest performance ensemble anyways.
Why do they not get the respect from the liberal community more I don't know. Makes them uncomfortable? Where are all those critics of RT American hosts because they are too soft on Putin? These girls are laying it all out there. Fighting the fascism in their home country in their own way. More power to them!
uhnope
(6,419 posts)but what "liberal community" are you referring to?
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PUSSY RIOT TO KREMLIN
PUTIN TO HAGUE TRIBUNAL
LiberalLovinLug
(14,164 posts)I don't mean they are completely ostracized by the left, but it is an uncomfortable relationship. They seem to be regarded as a curiousity. Look how many recs and posts for this story. Maybe its the language, cultural barrier. Maybe its a counter-reaction by the left to Western right wing governments using them to bash Russia and Putin, by criticizing that jail sentence. PR didn't ask for that endorsement. Maybe there is just too much on the plates of western liberals in regards to our own countries. Maybe its the extremism of their actions in past performances. Maybe its the feeling that they have had their 15 minutes.
My point is that there should be more support for the Russian liberal community. We never hear about them. And PR has forced their way to be spokespersons for that community. They should remind us that this is a world wide struggle against abuse of power and catering to the world's .1% above the civil rights of the 99.9 %. And these women are brave as hell.
apnu
(8,749 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)of the liberal community.
I think PR are the greatest thing to happen to so-called punk since the Sex Pistols
apnu
(8,749 posts)More so if you know of all the Russian specific symbolism going on in it. (like the bird references and the bread). Still not knowing them well, I found the video hard core and a brutal smack in Russia's face.