Pussy Riot documentary wins Sundance Festival special award

PanARMENIAN.Net - The documentary, Pussy Riot: a Punk Prayer, directed by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, won a special award at the U.S. Sundance Film Festival, RIA Novosti reported citing the festival’s website.

The film chronicles an act of protest by the Russian feminist punk-rock band, their outspoken defiance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, their trial and imprisonment.

The band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in prison over a punk prayer at Moscow's largest cathedral in February 2012 that urged "Mother Mary" to "drive Putin out."

The court ruled that the performance hurt the feelings of Orthodox believers, but the group said the "punk prayer" was a political act and was a response to Orthodox Church support for Putin ahead of his last year’s March 4 presidential election victory.

“British filmmaker Mike Lerner and Russian Maxim Pozdorovkin collaborate to chronicle the way one small act of protest captured a nation’s attention and grew to become an international story of human-rights abuse,” the festival’s website said.