PINA - a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders

"A thrilling piece of cinema. Five stars."
-- Times

"Pina gives us the supreme pleasure of watching fascinating bodies of widely varying ages in motion, whether leaping, falling, catching, diving, grieving, or exulting."
- Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

"What the filmmaker has created is an inspired simulacrum - a jewel-box that contains more of Bausch's kinetic soul than film has any right to."
-Ty Burr, Boston Globe

"For anyone with an interest in dance, "Pina" is a must-see. For anyone not interested in contemporary dance, "Pina" is a should-see. It could change your mind."

Nominee, Best Documentary, 2012 Academy Awards

Pina is a feature-length dance film with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009. Pina is a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders.

He takes the audience on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery into a new dimension: straight onto the stage with the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch ensemble, he follows the dancers out of the theatre into the city and the surrounding areas of Wuppertal - the place, which for 35 years was the home and centre for Pina Bausch's creativity.

All of Bausch's best-known pieces are present: her interpretation of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", in which feral single-sex gangs stomp on a layer of brown earth, or her "Café Müller", where female dancers staggering about with closed eyes have faith that male partners will remove chairs from their path. Wenders sets several dances – and purists may baulk at this – in spectacular outdoor locations; for me the experience was nothing but uplifting."

Germany * 2012 * 97 minutes * Dance/Music on Screen * Not-Rated * English and German with English subtitles