Pussy Riot Releases Disturbing Video Taken at Banksy’s Dismaland–Check It Out

The video is a call to action.

Pussy Riot rehearses ahead of the show they will be performing at Banksy's Dismaland on the 25th of September. Image Courtesy of : Vianney Le Caer for the Pussy Riot
Image Courtesy of: Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot

Image: Courtesy of: Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot.

Adorned in their signature neon-colored ski masks, Russian political activists and punk band Pussy Riot debut their most recent music video, titled, “Refugees In.”  It was filmed September 25 at Banky’s Dismaland, two days before the British street artist’s twisted amusement park closed for good. (Wood and other items from Dismaland were sent to a migrant camp in Calais, France.)

In January, the band plans to visit the Calais camp and help build temporary housing for refugees and migrants, in cooperation with architecture students from Cambridge University.

In director Ralf Schmerberg’s video, Pussy Riot gear up for their performance as audience members enjoy the amusement park rides and a group of tense police officers in riot gear watch over the crowd. Francisco Goya’s painting Saturn Devouring His Son also makes an appearance before the one-minute mark. The chorus contains eerily high-pitched singing, reminiscent of the dulcet tones of mechanical characters at Disney World attractions.

Image Courtesy of: Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot

Image: Courtesy of Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot.

Pussy Riot performs inside a cage, a symbol of their own past imprisonment and the physical and psychological imprisonment of refugees and migrants entering Europe today. The suspense climaxes into a fight between police and the crowd, which evokes police and public altercations that have been a staple of nightly news cycles in the past few years.

However, in Pussy Riot’s version of events, the audience does not end up in handcuffs; instead, the police are defeated.

Image Courtesy of : Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot

Image: Courtesy of Vianney Le Caer for Pussy Riot.

Unlike a somber song Pussy Riot dedicated to Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold by NYPD officers, “Refugees In” acts as a call to action.

This won’t be the last video from the band. Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot assured fans in a statement: “We are planning on releasing a lot of disturbing videos next year, we hope that you will not like them.”

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