Pina

Pina is a documentary built around the work of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, who led the Tanztheater Wuppertal ensemble for decades and died in the summer of 2009. Wim Wenders made the film with the company and shot it in 3D, capturing the dancers on stage and then following them out of the theatre into the city of Wuppertal, the place Bausch called home and the centre of her creative life for 35 years. The result is as much a record of her artistic legacy as it is a portrait of the performers who carry it forward. The film draws on footage of Bausch herself alongside contributions from longstanding members of the ensemble.

Wenders directed and wrote the screenplay, and produced with Gian-Piero Ringel. The cast is drawn from the company rather than from actors, and includes Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante, Jorge Puerta and Mechthild Großmann, with Bausch appearing in archive material. Released in 2011, the film sits between To Each His Own Cinema and The Salt of the Earth as the fifteenth of the twenty-two features Wenders has directed. Made for a modest budget, it earned several times that amount worldwide, and on TMDB it holds a rating of 7.4 from 286 votes.