- Culture
- 02 Apr 13
Stuart Clark takes an extended look at the Russian punk landscape...
Presuming that the YouTube counter does not lie, Russian punks Biting Elbows have accumulated a whopping 8,647,641 views of their Reservoir Dogs-esque ‘Bad Motherfucker: Insane Office Escape 2’ video in just under a week. Those registering their approval include Samuel L. Jackson who enthuses, “This is some buck wild shit! This coming from a BMF!” and Black Swan, Requiem For A Dream and The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky who describes it rather more laconically as, “So well done!”
Check it out for yourself at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgox84KE7iY.
Meanwhile, following a critically acclaimed Sundance run-out, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer has had its US rights acquired by HBO who are also planning to screen the documentary on this side of the Atlantic.
“One of the first things that drew me was a sense of a shared past with the characters,” explains director Maxim Pozdorovkin. “We had lived through similar times, listened to the same loud records, read the same poets and philosophers. I have found myself at family dinner tables arguing that Russian society could benefit from a feminist upheaval. The parents of the three members of Pussy Riot recalled having similar arguments with their daughters. As I listened to the girls’ testimonies in the courtroom, I discovered more similarities: a commitment to leftist politics, a love of the Russian avant-garde and its legacy, an interest in performance art as a political force, a rejection of the neo-liberal policies of the Yeltsin era.”
Find out more at www.facebook.com/PyssyRiotTheDocumentary.
From there it’s but a mere mouse-click to vicofilms.com/site/?page_id=17 where you can get a sneak peek at The King Of The Travellers, a new Irish film in which the traveller roles go to actual members of the community, many of whom are making their acting debuts. “With a nod to the Sergio Leone and John Ford westerns of the last century”, it’s released here on April 19.
Which just leaves time for quick visits to now.msn.com/samuel-l-jackson-dog-is-seen-in-viral-image (the aforementioned Pulp Fiction/Django Django man in doggy form); www.funnyordie.com (Jim Carrey sings his opposition to Charlton Heston and the NRA) and www.conklinradio.com (ace wireless prankster).