The Russian police stopped the punk band Pussy Riot from filming a new government-critical video called „Rage“. In the Lenfim cinema studio in St. Petersburg, the electricity was turned off after an intervention by the officials, said the musician Nadeschda Tolokonnikowa today. The 30-year-old said on Twitter that the video was illegal because it propagated homosexuality and was extremist. The song is about the resistance against those in power in Russia and against police violence.
The punk band released a video of the police operation and criticized the lack of freedom of art and speech in Russia. Nevertheless, Pussy Riot still want to shoot the video. „We are now collecting money for new filming – and I am convinced that we can get it together,“ said the artist.
Tolokonnikowa: work of three months destroyed
According to Tolokonnikowa, the police had previously tried to get the Lenfilm management to cancel the shooting. The chronically financially weak studio said, however, that the contract had been signed with the artists and the rent had been paid. „The clip should also feature the police – a real unit came instead of the movie actor,“ she said. Tolokonnikowa said the three-month work was destroyed.
Tolokonnikowa, who was already in a prison camp for a protest against Putin in a church, is considered the front woman of the activists, who often wear colorful stocking masks. The band gives concerts internationally and always causes a stir with radical video art. The women’s group is also well known in the United States, where Tolokonnikowa made a video against racism and sexism under US President Donald Trump.
