Pina

Nominated for best documentary at the Oscars this year, Pina is master filmmaker Wim Wenders’ (Paris, Texas; Buena Vista Social Club) homage to dance legend Pina Bausch. Wenders delivers the unexpected, both in terms of content and technique, with an exquisite biopic that’s short on conventional narrative, but filled with Bausch’s pivotal dance pieces (The Rite of Spring, Full Moon, Café Müller, Kontakthof). It’s also a film with an edge – Bausch died two days before filming was due to begin and Wenders turns it into a eulogy by way of satisfyingly unconventional interviews with her extended company. As fascinating for film aficionados as it is for hardcore dance fans.