Parky at the Pictures (DVD 14/11/2013)

Five years after the end of the Civil War, Kris Kristofferson and John Hurt graduate from Harvard. They listen with suitable earnestness as the esteemed Joseph Cotten addresses the assembled and urges them never to forget their duty to educate the nation. Hurt, a valedictorian who is somewhat the worse for drink, replies with mock gravity and caustic wit. But Kristofferson is finding it hard to concentrate on what his friend has to say, as he has been smitten by newcomer Roseanne Vela and he makes a beeline for her as the orchestra strikes up `The Blue Danube' and everyone begins to waltz on the lawn.

Twenty years later, Kristofferson is a US marshal and is riding to Johnson County when he stops off in the boom town of Casper, Wyoming. Tensions are rising between the local cattle ranchers and the influx of European immigrants, whose habitual rustling has prompted Sam Waterston, the head of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, to draw up a list of 125 suspects who are to be shot on sight, as thieves or troublemakers. Naturally, Kristofferson is disturbed when Hurt informs him of this development, but the Association's hired gun is his close friend, Christopher Walken. Yet when Kristofferson warns Waterston to stay within the law, a fight breaks out and the infuriated cattle baron starts seeking volunteers to help him with his hit list.

One of the recipients of the stolen cattle is Johnson County bordello madam Isabelle Huppert, who accepts steers as payment for the services of her girls. However, Kristofferson is devoted to her and they spend their leisure time at the Heaven's Gate roller-skating rink owned by Jeff Bridges. When US Army captain Terry O'Quinn gets hold of a copy of Waterston's list, Kristofferson reads it out to the patrons so that those named can make their getaway or reinforce their defences. Stationmaster Richard Masur promises to tell Kristofferson if he hears of any approaching posses, but he is murdered before he can warn the immigrants that Waterston is on the march. Soon afterwards, some of his men break into the bordello and rape Huppert and Kristofferson guns down those responsible without a single thought of a fair trial.

Walken is also disgusted by this act of barbarism and rides to Waterston's camp and kills the sole culprit who had evaded Kristofferson's vendetta. He vows to have nothing more to do with Waterston, but is trapped in a cabin with friends Geoffrey Lewis and Mickey Routke before a fierce gun battle erupts. Determined to help Walken, Huppert attempts to rescue them in her wagon, but is forced to flee on horseback, despite having picked off a couple of Waterston's men. Walken continues to fight after Lewis and Rourke perish and manages to scribble Huppert a farewell note before burning wagons are sent careering into the cabin and he is slaughtered as he tries to make a bid for freedom.

Riding to Heaven's Gate, Huppert alerts the settlers that a vicious gang is heading their way and Bridges organises the rabble into a fighting force. Rather than wait for Waterston to make his move, however, Bridges decides to go on the offensive and Hurt is among those bent on defending the right to life and liberty. As Waterston leaves the battle to fetch reinforcements, Kristofferson and Huppert return to Lewis's shack and find Walken's bullet-riddled body, along with his final message. Distraught at losing both Hurt and Walken, Kristofferson throws in his lot with the newcomers and a full-scale skirmish is only ended when Waterston arrives with troops detailed to restore the peace.

Realising that it is impossible for them to stay in such a lawless territory, Kristofferson, Huppert and Bridges pack up and prepare to leave. But they are ambushed by Waterston and a couple of his henchmen and Kristofferson alone survives to stroll the deck of his luxury yacht off Newport, Rhode Island in 1903. Well dressed and clearly a man of wealth and power, he goes below and lights a cigarette for Vela, who now appears to be his wife (or mistress). He looks at her, as though contemplating the things that have befallen them since he first set eyes on her 33 years earlier and returns to the deck with a measured tread, as the craft sails on.

One of the least romanticised visions of the Old West ever committed to celluloid, this forms a vital link in the chain that connects Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs Miller (1971) to Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012). Unlike the aforementioned, much of the violence takes place off screen, with Cimino often showing the hideous consequences of carnage rather than the choreographed blood-letting itself. But the grime and grimness of frontier society are captured with an unflinching authenticity by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, production designer Tambi Larsen and costumier Allen Highfill, whose efforts are staunchly supported by a sterling cast - and, of course, by Mansfield College, which stood in for Harvard..

Having headlined Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), Merton graduate Kris Kristofferson ably conveys the sense of patrician fair play that prompts him to stand alongside the huddled masses against the arriviste cattle barons. But, as is so often the case in revisionist Westerns, it's the villains who linger longest in the mind, as Walken's gunslinger cuts a sneering dash before he reclaims his soul and Waterston plays superbly against type as the bigot who considers himself above the law. Huppert, Hurt and Bridges also show to advantage, with the latter playing one of his own ancestors. Yet, while it has many good points, this also has its share of longueurs and moments of self-indulgence. However, what makes them so forgivable (albeit, perhaps, in retrospect) is that these lapses were committed in the name of real film-making, with proper sets, breathing extras and shots that were achieved by cameras mounted on dollies and cranes rather than by state-of-the-art computers.

In the grand scheme of things, of course it matters that Heaven's Gate did for the company started in 1919 by DW Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. But it was also shameful that critics of the calibre of Andrew Sarris, Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert should have followed lead given by the notoriously cantankerous Vincent Canby of the New York Times in castigating the film because its budget had spiralled and it had been branded a calamity by scurrilous insiders and tabloid rumour-mongers. Could the Internet have saved the picture by allowing citizen critics to drown out the chorus of disapproval? Probably not. But it will get a fairer hearing this time round and even those with little good to say about the horribly overrated Oscar winner The Deer Hunter (1979) may have to concede that it is a pity a fiasco that was only partially of Cimino's own making should have stalled his career just as it was gaining momentum.

Iain Softley has also failed to build on solid foundations and the plotting proves so problematic that considerable suspension of disbelief is required for Trap For Cinderella, an adaptation of a Sébastien Japrisot novel that was previously filmed in 1965 by André Cayatte. An underrated director whose legal thrillers owed more to the classical style than the nouvelle vague from which Softley has clearly taken his stylistic inspiration, Cayatte is barely known in this country and it's a shame that Piège pour Cendrillon is not available on video or DVD to compare with this determinedly trendy updating. Striving to return to British basics after more than a decade producing a string of Hollywood-backed projects that included The Wings of the Dove (1997), K-PAX (2001), The Skeleton Key (2005) and Inkheart (2008), Softley succeeds in capturing the hedonist sense of entitlement that characterises the new generation of bright young things. But, amidst the twists and turns of the fiendish narrative, he struggles to keep his cast from ramping up the melodrama, with the result that while this never ceases to tease or entertain, it rarely comes close to convincing.

In the still of an idyllic night in the south of France, an explosion rips through the heart of a luxurious chateau and a burning female plummets from an upper-storey window. She is taken to Switzerland, where her face requires major reconstructive surgery and a psychiatrist (Emilia Fox) tries to help Michelle (Tuppence Middleton) overcome her amnesia by explaining that she lost her parents at the age of nine and was raised by her Aunt Elinor (Frances De La Tour) and her personal assistant, Julia (Kerry Fox). But Micky remembers nothing and doesn't even recognise Julia when she comes to take her back to London.

Following a nightmare about the blaze, Micky is awoken by the phone ringing and overhears Julia mentioning someone called Jake (Aneurin Barnard). When she asks about her daily life, Julia explains that, while she had lots of boyfriends, her closest companion was Domenica (Alexandra Roach), whom she had known since she was nine years old, as she was the daughter of Aunt Elinor's housekeeper. Julia also reveals that Micky will inherit her aunt's fortune when she turns 21 and she becomes more puzzled than ever by flashes of recollection about the night of the fire that still make no sense.

Giving Julia the slip, Micky takes a taxi to see the family lawyer, Chance (Alex Jennings), and bumps into Jake on the street outside. They go back to his place to catch up and he informs her that they had broken up on her insistence. He asks to see the burns on her hands and kisses her. She inquires whether she had been unfaithful to him and he laughs that he wouldn't be surprised. Jake also gives her the keys to her flat in Hoxton and stuns her by breaking the news that Do had perished in the fire.

Leaving in distress, Micky goes to her flat and stares at the photographs on the walls in the hope of sparking a memory. She finds lots of pictures of Do and a suitcase containing her belongings. Rooting around, she finds some letters from Aunt Elinor and a diary, which opens with a happy entry about Do being reunited with Micky after many years when she came into the bank in which she worked as a clerk. They had agreed to meet up that night and the mousy Do had been starstuck by her chic friend, who regularly featured in the society pages of the glossy magazines. Yet she had also seemed melancholic back at her flat, as she chatted to a man on the phone and gulped down pills. But Micky had been back to her effervescent best in the morning and had made Do promise to come to a party that night as she dashed out with a portfolio of photographs.

Jealous of Jake, Do had tried to leave the event early. But Micky had jumped into her cab and they had gone back to Do's place to see the snapshots she had kept of their childhood. It had emerged that Do's father (Tim Walters) had killed himself in France and that her mother (Elizabeth Healey) had died soon after returning to Britain. But Do had never forgotten that the young Micky (Ciara Southwood) had saved her (Maisie Lloyd) from drowning in the swimming pool at Aunt Elinor's chateau and, therefore, she had readily accepted when Micky had invited her to move into her flat.

One day, while Micky was out, Do had answered the phone to Elinor, who was surprised that the pair had hooked up again, given what had happened in the past. At this point, the diary flashback sequence is interrupted by Julia walking in calmly to inform Micky that she is really Do and has to keep up the pretence or they will both be in serious trouble. Distraught at the revelation, Micky/Do runs away and checks into a seedy hotel in Do's name. She continues to peruse the diary and discovers that she had been besotted with Micky to the point of copying her clothing and wearing identical wigs on nights out. However, she had also deeply resented her casual pick-ups and had detested Jake for trying to come between them.

As she reads on, Micky/Do learns that Do had intercepted a cheque from Elinor and had started sending her affectionately nibling letters, which ceased when Micky and Do had fallen out over Jake and Do had written to Elinor under her own name to lament that Micky was running with the wrong crowd. However, the diary entries cease at this point and Micky/Do is forced to seek out Julia for clarification about what happened next.

Julia explains that Micky had refused to go to France on learning that Elinor was dying and that Julia had taken Do to dinner in a bid to talk her into changing Micky's mind. She had also tried to warn her against getting too close to Micky because she had a self-destructive streak and would be all too willing to take Do down with her. Furthermore, she had revealed that she knew all about Do's letters to Elinor and had confided that she thought it was unfair that someone with such good intentions should not be properly rewarded for her efforts. Consequently, she had encouraged Do to get in touch once they had arrived at the chateau because she had a proposition for her.

Much to her relief, Do had managed to persuade Micky to visit Elinor and, en route, she had admitted to despising her aunt and that Julia had been more responsible for her upbringing. After they had parked for the night in the middle of nowhere, Do had awoken to see Micky standing on the edge of a precipice gazing into space and she had been unnerved by her wistful air. On reaching the hospice, however, Micky had been put out by Elinor confusing her with Do. But she had snapped out of her funk by the time they had cycled down to the beach, where Micky had tried to teach Do to swim. Unaware that she was being watched by a man on a nearby cliff, Do had slipped away to call Julia from a café and had been reeled into her conspiracy by the discovery that her father had committed suicide after Micky had told her mother that he was having an affair with Elinor.

Julia had convinced Do that Micky had ruined her life once and could easily do so again. So, she agrees to follow her instructions and checks out the pilot light in the bathroom that will be central to their plan. Do had lain awake in bed that night thinking about the unhappy time she had endured following the passing of her parents and views Micky with a jaundiced eye as they sunbathe together the next day. But she still craves Micky's approval and it is only when she swans off to a boat in the harbour with some rich boys and leaves her to walk home alone that Do finally makes up her mind to act.

The following morning, Julia had arrived to break the news of Elinor's demise. But Micky had seemed unconcerned and Do had taken Julia aside to ask how they should proceed. Julia had told Do to wait until exactly 1am on Micky's birthday and then light some candles before disconnecting the gas pipe in the bathroom. She should then jump out of the open window at the end of the corridor and Julia would confirm that she is Micky and then whisk her away to the plastic surgeon (Erich Redman), who would make such a good job of her face that not even Elinor's loyal maid Yvette (Nathalie Paris) would be able to notice any discrepancy.

Realising that she could no longer go back, Do had plied Micky with wine and then given her pills to render her unconscious. She had put Micky in Do's bed and dressed herself in Micky's clothes before lining the corridor with lighted candles and unscrewing the bathroom fitting. Covering her face with a wet towel, she had jumped from the window just as the gas ignited and Julia had driven up just in time to convince the dismayed onlookers that Micky had somehow managed to survive the disaster.

Aghast at learning the truth, Micky/Do wants to go to the police. But Julia convinces her to wait until the will has been read, in the hope that her new wealth will buy her silence. They travel to the Riviera, where Yvette gives Micky/Do a cautious welcome. However, when Micky/Do goes for a drive in Micky's car, she is approached by Serge (Stanley Webber), who reveals that he works in the beachside café and had eavesdropped on Do's telephone conversation with Julia. Moreover, he explains how he had contacted Micky and had shown her the imprint of the message that Do had scribbled on a notepad about tampering with the boiler. They had become lovers and had plotted to do away with Do. But, while Do no longer poses a threat, Serge does and Micky offers him €100,000 if he agrees to keep quiet.

In a panic, Micky/Do tells Julia about Serge's attempt to blackmail her and she urges her to stay calm, as they can rectify the situation after the will has been read. Lying on her bed, Micky/Do wrestles with the conflicting information she has received over the past few days and seems uncertain whether to trust Julia or Serge. She also remains unclear whether she is Micky or Do and decides to make a recording and mails it just as Chance and Julia are opening Elinor's documents. As she awaits news, Micky/Do drives to the café and offers Serge the car as his payoff and he accepts. But, on returning to the chateau, Micky/Do finds Julia in low spirits in the garden. She explains that all their scheming has been in vain because Elinor had left everything to Do and they begin to fight when Micky/Do confesses to having sent the incriminating tape to Chance.

The pair fall into the pool and the action suddenly flashes back to Micky catching Do about to cause the explosion. Ashamed of betraying her friend, Do had apologised and Micky had tried to convince her they should escape together. But a burning wooden frame had collapsed into the corridor and blocked Do's way and she had smiled sadly in telling Micky to save herself. As the memories come flooding back, Micky dashes Julia's skull against the side of the pool and she dies. Scrambling out of the water, Micky rushes to the beach, where she strips off and walks into the water. She starts to swim and finally knows her true identity. As dawn breaks, she is awoken by the tide lapping against her and she walks off slowly along the sand.

Given that Japrisot collaborated under his real name (Jean-Baptiste Rossi) with the director and playwright Jean Anouilh on the screenplay, one would like to think that Cayatte's take on this gleefully convoluted saga would have been pitched somewhere between Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). Iain Softley's impression, however, errs too much towards Barbet Schroeder's Single White Female (1992) or Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) when it might have been better off heading in the darkly comedic direction of Robert Aldrich's What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). The plot is so stuffed with overripe clichés and caricatures that it needs a much more playfully self-guying approach than Softley felt able to concede. As a consequence of playing so rigorously straight, however, the picture feels mechanical and overly reliant on dramatic and stylistic contrivance. If vital information is not conveyed through a diary entry or an overheard conversation, it is presented as part of a labyrinthine flashback or in interminable expository speeches that often obfuscate as much as they clarify.

The premise comprises ingenuity and hokum in equal measures and it is difficult from this romp to see why Japrisot was dubbed `the French Graham Greene' - although, admittedly, he also provided the material for such fine films as Costa-Gavras's The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), the Jean Becker trio of One Deadly Summer (1983), The Children of the Marshland (1999) and A Crime in Paradise (2001), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (2004), as well as the original scripts for René Clément's Rider on the Rain (1970) and Just Jaeckin's erotic classic, Story of O (1975). Perhaps Cayatte was luckier in having the estimable Madeleine Robinson play his scheming factotum and was wiser in casting Dany Carrel as both Michèle and Dominique, as Softley is certainly disadvantaged by the gauche performance of the usually reliable Kerry Fox and the fact that neither Tuppence Middleton nor Alexandra Roach has the experience or screen presence to carry off such tricky roles.

Thus, while this is always highly enjoyable, its pleasures lie partly in the improbabilities of its scenario and the flaws in its translation to the screen. Christian Henson's score is so insistent and stifling that it feels almost parodic, while the dialogue is often dreadfully clumsy. But cinematographer Alex Barber ably captures the contrasts between London and southern France, while costume designer Verity Hawkes has fun blurring the distinction between Micky and Do. Moreover, Softley directs with admirable conviction and it is often clear that this would have collapsed like a pack of cards in lesser hands. But one cannott help wondering how this might have turned out had it been given the greenlight back in 2010, when Imogen Poots and Felicity Jones were joined in the announced cast by Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Ed Westwick, Tamsin Egerton and Bill Bailey.

The premise is even more deliciously delirious in the case of Stuart St Paul's Bula Quo!, yet this still manages to be irresistibly entertaining. Essentially, a reworking of Richard Lester's Beatle outing, Help! (1965), the plot has veteran rockers Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt caught up in an organ harvesting scam when Status Quo arrive to play a series of concerts in Fiji. Having never forgiven the duo for cheerleading for Manchester United with the execrable 1994 single, `Come On You Reds', this seemed the perfect opportunity to exact revenge. But memories of seeing the band supporting Queen at Wembley in 1986 and Alan G. Parker's excellent 2012 documentary, Hello Quo!, just about ensure a stay of execution. However, unless things improve markedly, one suspects it will be tougher to be so lenient when the Indian-set sequel, Namaste Quo!, finally reaches our screens.

Following a cod monochrome newsreel introducing the Fijian islands and recalling how a couple of Aussie explorers named Rossi and Parfitt fell victim to cannibalism when they tried to sing, the action switches to Nadi Airport, where PR Laura Aikman is dismayed to discover that the members of Status Quo are so ancient. As minder-cum-manager Craig Fairbrass bundles the troublesome Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi into the waiting transport with bandmates Andrew Brown and John `Rhino' Edwards, local TV weatherman Matt Kennard snoops around for a story that will help him persuade news anchor Jean Heard that he has the right stuff to become a reporter. However, she is less than impressed when rumours that Parfitt has been killed in a plunge from a waterfall prove unfounded and she sniffily opines that celebrities will do anything to stay in the headlines.

As they watch Quo belt out their classic hit `Caroline' for ecstatic Fijian fans, Fairbrass warns Aikman that while Rick and Francis may no longer be in the first flush of youth (jokes abound about their age and Parfitt's previous brushes with death) they are still a handful. And so it proves when they sneak away from the after-show party and witness a game of Russian roulette in the courtyard of the restaurant run by American expat, Jon Lovitz. Causing a fire to facilitate their getaway, Rossi and Parfitt realise they have stumbled on to an organ smuggling racket, but decide not to show the police their phone-cam footage, even though Lovitz has dispatched heavy Leo Richmond to apprehend them before they can talk.

Having missed the ferry to the next island, Rossi and Parfitt steal some aloha shirts and try to blend in with the tourists. However, in trying to catch they next boat, they are pursued by thugs on jet skis and have to jump overboard wearing scuba-diving apparatus. Debating what to do while larking around among the tropical fishes, they beat a hasty retreat from some sharks and find themselves washed up on a beach. Rossi calls for help and Fairbrass picks them up in a flying boat to shoot a new video for `Living on an Island' with some friendly locals, who introduce them to the hallucinogenic hooch, kava.

Rossi entrusts his phone to Aikman and she is appalled by the footage of the murder at Lovitz's place. Consequently, she baits him with unsubtle remarks about his hideous sideline during a boat-board reception for the band and Fairbrass tries to smooth things over by inviting Lovitz to that night's gig. By the time he arrives, however, Lovitz has seen CCTV images of Rossi and Parfitt in his courtyard and he goes to the concert intent on killing them so that his tame surgeon can fillet them for merchandise. However, as Quo play `Pictures of Matchstick Men' on stage, Kennard finds the incriminating evidence on Aikman's laptop and tries to convince Heard that he is on to a real scoop.

Lovitz breaks into the dressing-room in time to prevent Heard receiving an e-mail containing the evidence and smashes the laptop before attempting to kill Parfitt and Rossi with a bomb in a souvenir doll. Luckily, Fairbrass rescues the boys and they speed off in a courtesy car. Lovitz has them followed, however, and Aikman is forced to follow her male companions in jumping off a bridge into the river when they are trapped at a roadblock. They are more than a little surprised, therefore, to see Heard announce on the next morning's news that they are drug dealers who have murdered their own driver. So, Rossi and Parfitt agree to lay low at an exclusive hotel, while Fairbrass tries to sort everything out. He returns to find the pair playing `Down Down' on ukuleles with some Fijian musicians and discovers that Lovitz has taken Aikman and Heard hostage and threatens to kill them unless all footage of the shooting is handed over.

Pushing her guard into the swimming pool at Heard's house, the plucky Aikman makes a bid for freedom in a kayak and leads Richmond a merry dance in a golf buggy before she crashes and Lovitz recaptures her. Meanwhile, Rossi and Parfitt prove themselves useful with their fists (and some pots and pans lying around in Lovitz's kitchens) as they join Fairbrass on a recce to the restaurant that ends with them jumping through a plate glass window in order to escape the chasing goons. They meet up with Kennard, who has learned that Richmond is a retired copper who fell in with Lovitz to pay for his wife's black market kidney transplant and they realise that Lovitz has been serving up unwanted body parts on his menu. Heard insists she is still to be convinced by Kennard's findings, however, and, even though he shows her footage of Parfitt being captured by Richmond after an encounter at the food market, she keeps broadcasting the story that they are the real villains.

That night, Rossi and Fairbrass gain access to the restaurant, where Lovitz is taking bets from the chanting onlookers about whether Parfitt or Aikman will perish in the game of Russian roulette. But Rossi insists on taking Aikman's place and they begin fooling around as Lovitz rants on about organs having always been in his family because his grandfather used to play a Wurlitzer in his hometown cinema. Amidst the chaos, Parfitt grabs the gun and shoots Lovitz in the backside. But he slips away as Heard arrives with police reinforcements and the picture ends with Rossi and Parfitt dragging Aikman on to the plane home before Kennard can declare his love.

Accompanied by the rousing title track, a mixture of highlights and out-takes runs to the closing credits. But only die-hard fans are going to warm to this cornball hokum. Cast as a latterday Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Parfitt and Rossi banter in an appealingly deadpan manner that is capably complemented by Fairbrass's world-weary resourcefulness and Aikman's sparky cynicism. Comic Jon Lovitz is woefully miscast as the baddie, however, while Kennard and Heard (who co-scripted with St Paul) often seem stiff. Yet, even though the attempts to turn the two 64 year-olds into action heroes are frequently risible, they keep their tongues firmly in their cheeks and exude a charm that just about atones for the lapses in plotting and the more awkward thrill sequences.

Musically, Quo may not be what they used to be and the recycled hits are vastly superior to the many new songs. But their 12-bar style remains distinctive and Mark Blackledge deftly incorporate snatches of several solid gold tracks in his incidental score. Operating on a limited budget, St Paul (who directed Rossi and Pariff in their 2005 Coronation Street cameo) keeps things ticking over and allows cinematographer Chas Bain to reflect the beauty of the exotic setting. But one hopes he can come up with something a bit more original if Quo really are going to start rocking all over the world.

Moving into documentary mode, the mood is more sombre in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. On 21 February 2012, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich donned baggy jumpers and pastel-coloured ski masks to perform `Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away' on the high altar of the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. They were removed by security guards and were later charged with `hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' after complaints were made by worshippers that they had been prevented from praying by the protest against the closeness between Kirill, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, and President Vladimir Putin.

Presumably, little would have been heard of this incident had Nadia, Masha and Katia not been sentenced to two years each in a penal colony for their crime and had fellow artists like Yoko Ono and Madonna not taken up their cause in the West. As a result of the international furore that followed the instigation of what many compared to the show trials of the 1930s, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin decided to chronicle proceedings. Clearly released at the earliest opportunity, this harrowing documentary always feels more like a piece of reportage than a considered documentary. Thus, while it bears a marked similarity to Cyril Tuschi's Khodorkovsky (2011) in its depiction of the Russian judicial system in action, it is much rougher and readier and will leave many wondering what this infamous performance troupe-cum-punk combo was actually seeking to achieve during its brief moment in the spotlight.

Opening with grainy, handheld footage of the cathedral stunt, Lerner and Pozdorovkin take up the story as Nadia, Masha and Katia face up to the prospect of spending seven years behind bars for taking a stand against a regime whose unpopularity had been made manifest during the street demonstrations before the 2012 presidential election that saw Prime Minister Putin swap places with his sidekick, Dmitry Medvedev, who had occupied the Kremlin for a single term after Putin's initial entitlement to the highest office had elapsed. During clips from their interrogation as the Women's Detention Centre in Moscow, Nadia declares that the bond between Church and State has become too close and that she had stormed the altar to draw attention to this dangerous anomaly and the fact that women were excluded from presiding over religious services.

Her father, Andrei Tolokonnikov, tells the film-makers of his pride in his daughter's stance and confides that he had not only encouraged her since Pussy Riot played its first shock gig in a Moscow beauty salon, but had also helped her with the lyrics to some of their songs. The band had been formed as a direct response to Putin bending the rules of the constitution to run again for the presidency and they had denounced his nationalist approach to governance while calling for an uprising during a performance in Red Square. However, Andrei confesses that he had tried to talk Nadia out of the cathedral show, as religion was such a sensitive issue and the edifice had a special place in the hearts of believers, as it had been rebuilt following the collapse of Communism after the original had been demolished on 5 December 1931 to make way for a municipal swimming pool.

Katia's father, Stanislav Samutsevich, jokes that he thought they looked like bank robbers, and Masha's mother, Natalia Aliokhina, admits that she almost felt like disowning her. But, judging by the rehearsal footage of the song `Sh*t! It's God Sh*t!', the trio had clearly calculated that their protest was going to provoke and Andrei reveals that Nadia had wanted to call their first CD `Kill All Sexists' rather than `Occupy Red Square'. Once again, we are shown the images from inside Christ the Saviour, as Stanislav wishes that they had found a less contentious place for what he insists was a point well worth making.

The Moscow police didn't agree, however, and the members of Pussy Riot were forced into hiding and two managed to flee abroad before Nadia, Masha and Katia were eventually detained. Denied bail by the female magistrate, even though the first two were the mothers of young children, the threesome spoke courageously from the cage in which they were made to sit during the hearing, with Nadia suggesting that Russia didn't understand performance art or punk rock and that the nation needed to throw off its shackles and embrace the modern world if it was to take its place alongside the other civilised nations.

As the respective legal teams squabble unedifyingly in the corridor outside the courtroom, Nadia, Masha and Katia are photographed and bombarded with questions by a press corps allowed surprisingly easy access to such notorious prisoners. Nadia denounces Putin as a totalitarian leader and her father is accused by an onlooker of being the real brains behind the Pussy Riot phenomenon. Outside, lawyer Mark Feygin holds Nadia's daughter Gera as he gives a press conference about the denial of visitation rights and confides to the camera that, having been fined for the earlier song `Putin P*ssed Himself', he fears that they may be given custodial sentences as an example to any other would-be upholders of free speech.

The Pussy Riot Support Group declare the trio to be prisoners of conscience and plan a series of activities to keep them in the public eye. However, their opponents are also mobilising and there is a disconcerting ferocity about the way in which they are branded as witches at a prayer meeting at the cathedral. The Patriarch declares that Russia is doomed if its holy places are not protected from blasphemers and there is a danger that the situation might deteriorate as Pussy Riot activists mingle with the crowds outside Christ the Saviour and accuse them of being knee-jerk conservatives. In retaliation, white-bearded men in `Orthodoxy or Die' t-shirts scoff that the band's name means `Demented Vagina' and one avers that if they hate men so much they should go and live on an island and think themselves lucky this isn't the 15th century when the authorities knew how to treat their kind.

Footage follows of a press conference at which three masked woman demand a free society and a huge picture of Putin is torched in an abandoned factory. It isn't made clear whether this event occurred before the arrests, but it rather plays into Putin's hands, as he refuses to utter the group's name during a television interview, during which he implies that it is the duty of the secular government to protect Russian Orthodoxy after what its adherents had endured during the Soviet era.

Six months after the arrests, Nadia, Masha and Katia return to court. The first says she is ready to apologise for the distress her actions might have caused genuine believers, but she refuses to disown the sentiment behind them. Katia contents herself with saying that the charges are unconvincing before entering a plea of `not guilty', while Masha refuses to co-operate with the court because she fails to understand the ideology behind the charge being levelled at her. Having allowed them time to speak, a new female judge commits them for trial on the grounds of hate-based hooliganism.

In a rather clumsy bid to present them as victims of the society in which they were raised, Lerner and Pozdorovkin have Natalia say that Masha might have been an argumentative child and a huge fan of The Spice Girls, but her heart was always in the right place. Consequently, her support for the campaign to save the Utrish Forest had been based more on personal conviction than politics. Stanislav lauds Katia as a keen student of art history, who lost her sense of direction when her mother died and she ceased wishing to emulate her by becoming a painter herself. Furthermore, Andrei reveals how his happy five year-old daughter had changed when her mother had demanded a divorce and he was powerless to prevent her from later cultivating an interest in the conceptual art group, Voina. Indeed, it's evident that he disapproved of such antics as having women members give lesbian kisses to strangers on the street (including cops) and indulge in naked acts of unsimulated intercourse in the Biology Museum. As Nadia was eight months pregnant at the time, this had particularly shocked him, but he had never ceased to admire her courage or commitment.

Now joined by Violetta Volkova and Nikolai Polozov, Mark Feygin decides to base the defence case on the Church-State dichotomy. Nadia reiterates her regret at offending adherents of Orthodoxy, while Katia tries to point out that a combination of ignorance and culture shock had landed them in trouble, as too few people understood their brand of artistic expression and wonders whether they would even be here if they had asked the Virgin to protect Putin rather than remove him. Feygin points out that there is no formal blasphemy law in Russia and suggests that Pussy Riot are more Christian in their actions and attitudes than the majority of their accusers. But the prosecution counters by insisting that the right to worship had been violated by an act that was so brazenly anti-democratic that it has damaged the liberal cause. They also respond furiously to accusations that Putin himself is controlling the case and has already instructed the bench on its verdict and its sentence. At one point, they even claim that detention would be a kindness, as such is the wrath of offended zealots that the threesome would be safer inside prison than out.

In conclusion, the state lawyers demand three years of penal servitude and Natalia admits that she has been frightened since receiving phone threats from so-called Orthodox jihadists. Nadia's husband, Peter Verzilov, tells the media that it feels like they are living in Stalinist times and he lets his wife know that he is proud of her on the final day of the trial, when each of the accused is allowed to make a last statement. The guards try to keep the women quiet as they await commencement and they are singularly unimpressed that Madonna sang `Like a Virgin' during her Moscow concert the night before while wearing a Pussy Riot balaclava.

Katia speaks first and says that the protest has served its purpose as it made people think and has proved that an unholy alliance exists between Kirill and Putin, as they have been so united in their statements about the affair. Masha agrees that they have embarrassed the government and compares their plight to that of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 after repeated run-ins with the Brezhnev Kremlin. She says she cares more about the fate of her child than herself and refuses to be intimidated by a tyrannical state, as she feels more free each time it tries to oppress her. Summing up, Nadia says that Pussy Riot have not been on trial, as the charges have all been made against Russia, and that Putin has lost because of the cacophony he has caused in trying to silence them. She ends by quoting a lyric about opening doors, removing uniforms and sampling freedom and calls upon all citizens to join them in open revolt.

All three manage a smile at the courthouse gates as they are led away and the police struggle to cope with the mask-wearing supporters venting their fury at the two-year sentences. However, eight months after the now globally infamous incident, Katia comes to the appeal court to ask the judge to look again at the footage and see that the had been busy getting her guitar out of its case and had not, therefore, actively participated in the protest. Her new lawyer, Irina Khrunova, goes on the attack and succeeds in securing a suspended sentence and Katia is embraced by her grinning bandmates before being reunited with her father in the middle of a media scrum. Closing captions reveal that Nadia and Masha have also since engaged Khrunova and plan to lodge their own appeals. However, little will change in Russia as a whole, as Putin looks set to remain in power until 2024.

Largely dependent on the found footage edited deftly by Esteban Uyarra, Lerner and Pozdorovkin deserve great credit for producing such a coherent profile in such a short space of time. They also make the best of the fact that they cannot speak directly to the members of Pussy Riot themselves by coaxing their parents into providing so much of their backstory. But, while they capture something of Nadia, Masha and Katia nascent personalities, they barely scratch the surface when it comes to their mature opinions or their motives for making such an audacious statement when they must have suspected the consequences. The fact that what was essentially a prank could provoke such a sledgehammer response exposes the insecurity of the post-Communist state. But, by presuming that most viewers will already be familiar with life in Putin's Russia, the co-directors struggle to contextualise the cathedral protest within either an historico-political framework or the band's own career arc. Similarly, no great attempt it made to explore Pussy Riot's status within the country before the trial or how much their fate has impacted upon ordinary Russians.

There is also little sense of the dynamics within the group and who provides its creative and, thus, its activist impetus. From the few clips of their music shown here, Pussy Riot are raw in the extreme, with the lyrics often being screamed over a discordant thrash backing track. But, as they demonstrated in the courtroom, each woman displays a poise, eloquence and courage that is truly humbling and their confidence in their rectitude leaves many of their more technically proficient and commercially successful contemporaries looking anodyne and toothless when their are so many pressing social, humanitarian, ecological and political issues to confront. The pampered British bands currently dominating the charts and complaining about the state of the music business should watch this and hang their heads in shame.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite adopts a much more conventional style in Blackfish. But this investigation into the capture and confinement of killer whales by theme parks in North America has such a compelling story to tell that the blend of archive footage and talking-head interview keeps the focus on the grim facts surrounding Tilikum, a 12,000lb bull orca, whose notoriety is almost entirely down to the exploitative executives who put profit above the physical and psychological well-being of the animals in their care. It is hardly surprising that the SeaWorld organisation refused to co-operate with this picture, as the evidence is stacked so high against its practices that no amount of eloquent justification could satisfactorily counter it. But there is nothing triumphalist about this harrowing exposé. Indeed, an air of melancholy informs the testimony of trainers who deeply regret buying into a corporate ethos that they now realise flies in the fact of both science and plain human decency.

On 24 February 2010, emergency services in the vicinity of SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida received calls that there had been an accident at Shamu Stadium. As audio of these 911 exchanges play on the soundtrack, Cowperthwaite cross-cuts between footage of wet-suited trainers interacting with whales during public shows and former employees John Hargrove, Samantha Berg, Mark Simmons, Carol Ray, Dean Gomersall, John Jett and Jeff Ventre all expressing their surprise that a trainer as experienced as Dawn Brancheau had been killed in such an horrific manner.

A clip from an old promotional film fronted by James Earle Jones boasts of the years of study and coaching required before a trainer could be entrusted with one of the most majestic and intelligent animals in the world. But all of the above contradict this claim, while readily admitting that they had all visited water parks as kids and been hooked on the mix of thrill and tranquility they seemed to offer. Gomersall remembers seeing one trainer performing a Wizard of Oz spoof as Dorky with a cowardly sea lion for company and had scoffed that he would never be caught doing something so demeaning and, yet, he was soon playing exactly the same role and having the time of his life. They all mention the awe they felt on being in the presence of such huge, but graceful and mostly friendly creatures and, while Berg enthuses about the first time she rode on a whale's back, Hargrove recollects the delight of establishing a bond with his animals and forming a unique team.

But the Tilikum-Brancheau incident seemed to make all of these trainers question the operational and zoological methods that they had been happy to extol in promotional films and television interviews to boost visitor numbers. But the fact that such a meticulous trainer could perish in such a manner forced them to rethink their attitudes, especially when the Occupational Safety & Health Administration sued SeaWorld and, amidst a montage of news clips, marine expert Dave Duffus explains that orcas are such unpredictable creatures that swimming with them should be outlawed. But, most revealingly, he says that Tilikum had previous form and that such a tragedy was almost inevitable.

In 1970, John Crowe had been part of a whale-hunting expedition to Puget Sound and he readily conceded that the experience shook him. Howard Garrett, the founder of the Orca Network, describes how bombs were used to herd the whales into coves so that the young could be captured. The males caused a diversion that allowed the females to swim north, but they were only spotted by surveillance planes and their babies were trapped in nets and hauled on to the waiting ships, as the parents hovered helplessly crying out in such a pitiful way that left a weeping Crowe feeling as though he was kidnapping a human child. He was even more distressed at being asked to weight the carcasses of three dead infants so that they could not be found by the authorities and, only then, did he realise the illegality of the mission. Garrett says water parks were warned off the Washington coastline after this, but they started sending expeditions to Iceland instead to ensure they had a ready supply of trainable beasts.

One of those captured in the North Atlantic in 1983 was Tilikum, who was 11.5ft long at the age of two and rapidly grew once he was ensconced in the highly inadequate pools at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. Eric Walters was one of his first trainers and, along with Ken Balcomb (director of the Centre for Whale Research) and former company director Steve Huxter, he agrees that Tilikum was the star of the show. Huxter concedes that an early trainer had withheld food to punish the creature if he failed to perform his `behaviours' properly and this caused his two female companions, Haida II and Nootka IV, to rake him with their teeth, as they were missing out on treats because of his inadequacies. Moreover, this bullying continued at night, as they were confined in a pool just 20ft across and 30ft deep, which left them virtually immobile for two-thirds of each day.

Trainer Christopher Porter admits that the situation was far from ideal and that the whales could only be lured into this steel box by food. Moreover, Balcomb opines that such treatment would almost certainly have scarred Tilikum emotionally and led to him attacking and killing Keltie Byrne on 20 February 1991. Corinne Cowell and Nadine Kallen were in the audience that day and recall thinking how rundown Sealand was before they spotted Byrne trip and fall into the pool, where Tilikum pulled her under and his companions joined him in attacking her. She had called for help as she had bobbed back to the surface, but nobody had responded to what appears to have been a prolonged attack and Cowell and Kallen were hardly surprised when the park was closed down soon afterwards. But, as Duffus reveals, the verdict of accidental drowning meant that no lawsuits were brought against the owners and that Tilikum was sold to SeaWorld as a prize breeding and performing bull without a stain on his character. But the witnesses to Byrne's demise tell a very different story.

Although the staff at SeaWorld were never given a full explanation, Tilikum was not supposed to perform again. As Garrett explains, too little was known about killer whales at this time and the misconceptions about their nature had been reinforced by Michael Anderon's 1977 film,Orca, a crude hybrid of Moby Dick and Jaws that had starred Richard Harris as a vengeful hunter. But, in fact, there are few recorded orca attacks on humans in the wild, as they are gentle creatures who live in close-knit family groups that have their own distinctive communication patterns. Neuroscientist Lori Marino explains how orcas have a special part of their brains devoted to processing emotions, which enables them to bond more closely than humans and not only develop a greater sense of self, but also share it with the other members of their gam. This pack mentality explains why whales become stranded en masse. But it also suggests why there is antagonism when whales from different pods are forced together in captivity, as they don't necessarily share a language or behavioural systems.

Duffus explains that the Inuit peoples call them `blackfish' and revere them for their speed and power. He admits he would never leave his boat to swim with them, even in the wild, and their ruthless cunning is clearly shown in aerial footage of wild whales trapping a sea lion on an ice floe. But this is where they should be, as they gain so little from human interaction and certainly live longer in the sea than they ever do in water parks - with males reaching ages of 50-60 and females being known to tip 100, while they last for a mere 20-25 years in captivity.

Ventre recalls how enormous Tilikum seemed when he arrived at SeaWorld. But, as whale society is so matriarchal, he was bullied again by the females in his pool, and he was often kept in isolation when he was not being used for breeding. Eventually, however, he was introduced into shows to provide a big splash finale and Jett and Berg remember him always being happy to see his trainers in the morning and that he seemed to like learning tricks and getting a positive reaction from people. As they had been told that the females had killed Keltie Byrne, the staff always considered him a big softie. But Berg did notice that certain administrators were always nervous around the pool when Tilikum was there and Ventre recalls being ordered to destroy a tape of a show when he noticed that Tilikum had tried to snatch one of the trainers from the walkway.

Yet, when head trainer Kelly Clark was questioned by OSHA attorney John Black during the court case (presented as line drawings on lined A4 paper with typed dialogue), she said that orcas were as likely to pull someone under the water as he or any other man was likely to commit rape. The potential was there, but it doesn't mean it happens. Judge Ken Welsch ordered that her provocative remark be struck from the record, but Ventre says it was in the notes that accompanied Tilikum from Sealand that he had the propensity to attack. Carol Ray now feels ashamed that she trotted out SeaWorld propaganda about the whales being happy and safe, as she now realises they only performed for food and led miserable existences when left alone. Moreover, she now understands how traumatised Katina was when her disruptive daughter Kalina was taken away and is still haunted by the anguished cries that she recognises now as crushing grief.

Hargrove has a similar story about Kasaka being separated from her calf and reveals that experts were brought in to investigate the plaintiff sounds she kept making that differed markedly from her usual intonation. After much deliberation, they concluded that she was trying to contact her baby and he opines that it is morally unacceptable to put an animal of such sensitivity and intelligence in such a callously harrowing situation. Gomersall similarly regrets bitterly his failure to question the information his bosses kept feeding him, while Berg says she knew a lot about being a trainer, but next to nothing about the animals she was tending. Garrett debunks the myth that whales live longer in captivity and declares that only 1% of males suffer from dorsal fin collapse in the ocean, but almost all enclosed males are stricken. Ventre confirms the folly of mixing whales from different family units and Marino states that such a policy will inevitably lead to violence that would not occur in the natural world, as the whales would rather beat a retreat and find a new area of water than risk a confrontation.

In 1988, an orca named Kandu killed Corky by breaking its jaw so badly that it bled to death before anyone could help it. Berg insists that the trainers he knew always felt close to their animals, but there is no guarantee others will treat them so well and Dawn Brancheau fell victim to the damage that she never knew had been inflicted upon Tilikum.Ray remembers the shock she felt on hearing the news. But, Cowperthwaite reveals that there have been over 70 recorded attacks since 20 April 1971 at the various SeaWorld centres across the United States. In 1987, John Sillick was blamed for allowing a whale to crush him while riding on the back of another. Footage of the incident is shown and it seems clear this was a conscious attack rather than a case of trainer negligence or error. Berg says it is a miracle that Sillick survived the crushing, while quick thinking on the part of colleagues prevented a trainer named Tamaree being pulled under by Orkid and Splash, as she left a leg dangling over the pool edge as she chatted with them. By opening a gate that the whales knew let the older, larger Kasaka into the pool, the staff succeeded in driving the pair away and Tamaree was fortunate to only incur compound fractures of her arm.

Berg insists that she knew nothing of these attacks while working in Orlando and the other ex-trainers agree that an `ask no questions' culture existed and, if anyone made a complaint or was reluctant to go back in the pool after an episode, they would be informed that they could easily be replaced. But the case of Ken Peters and Kasaka on 29 November 2006 did make the headlines after the 5000lb whale grabbed his foot while preparing to do a `rocket hop' and held him at the bottom of the pool for between 60-80 seconds. As an experienced scuba diver and trainer, Peters remained calm and make the most of Kasaka resurfacing to gulp in as much air as possible before being dragged down for a second time. As Duffus says on seeing the footage, the beast was toying with him and it was remarkable that Peters had the presence of mind to calm her down and make a dash for the safety zone once she was sufficiently relaxed.

Yet, rather than admitting that this had been a near fatality, SeaWorld spun the story so it appeared to validate its methodology and the daily shows continued without further inquiry. But not everyone was as skilled as Ken Peters and Daniel P. Dukes perished in the Orlando pool on 7 July 1999 and it was presumed that Tilikum had killed him, as he had kept hold of the body like a doll. According to Ventre, Dukes was mentally disturbed and remained hidden after a show or climbed into the facility clearly tried to commune with the whales. Jett is curious as to why none of the many CCTV cameras around the place failed to capture his image or why the night watch trainer failed to notice any commotion. The management told the media that Dukes had died of hypothermia, but it seems as though Tilikum had stripped him, bitten off his genitals and mauled the corpse. But, rather than destroying him or letting him loose, the owners decided to keep  him as he was too valuable at stud and it is estimated that 45% of SeaWorld orcas have Tilikum's genes.

Mark Simmons doubts that the gene count will prove significant, but he is less confident when Cowperthwaite asks from off camera about Loro Parque in the Canary island of Tenerife. Estefania Rodriguez  is less reticent, however, as she recalls the fate of fiancé Alexis Rodriguez, who was killed by a bull orca named Keto on Christmas Eve in 2009. Suzanne Allee, the video technician at Loro Parque, claims that the attraction was an accident waiting to happen. Four young bulls had been flown over from the US and they were entrusted to inexperienced staff. As the pools hadn't been completed to standard, the animals had health problems and footage shows a clearly distressed whale being held down by several men so it could be treated. As in Orlando, it was the best trainer who succumbed and his mother, Mercedes, recalls the park authorities telling her that there was nothing they could have done. Yet, when Estefania was told about the incident, she was reassured that everything was okay. Instead, she had to go to the morgue and see that Alexis's chest had burst open with the impact of the attack.

Dave Duffus is certain that SeaWorld was responsible for the trainers at Loro Parque, even though it had no commercial interest in the company. Yet, when Kelly Clark was questioned on oath by OSHA, she denied any culpability and Cowperthwaite boldly dissolves from the blank-faced line drawing of the reconstruction to the real Clark emerging from the hearing. On the soundtrack, Duffus avers that if she didn't know about the SeaWorld link to Loro Parque, she should have done. But his suspicion is that she is lying and it does seem as though the curse of Tilikum's genes is very real.

John Jett explains that he knew by now that it would only be a matter of time before Tilikum attacked once more. Garrett and Berg explain how the show on 24 February 2010 had not gone well, as the whales were refusing to co-operate and Blancheau decided to perform a few additional behaviours in her Dine With Shamu segment to give the audience better value for their money. At first, Tilikum seemed to be enjoying himself. But he failed to hear a whistle at the end of a perimeter pec wave and went round a second time. When he came to the pool edge to collect his reward for doing a good job, Blancheau sent him away with nothing for ignoring his cue. Suddenly frustrated at being short-changed and aware from the sound of the ice in the fish bucket that supplies were running low, Tilikum seemed to switch off and his resentment grew as Blancheau pushed him into doing more tricks.

As Blancheau entered the water to enjoy some quiet time with Tilikum before his big finale, he seemed to lose his temper and grabbed her arm and rolled her over and mutilated her on taking her below the surface. He refused to relinquish her body after the attack and a shocking list of injuries are catalogued on screen from the autopsy report. When he was asked in court what lessons had been learned between Tilikum's first assault and this one, Duffus said he was pretty sure the answer was `none'. But what appalled him most about this tragedy was the way SeaWorld tried to avoid taking any responsibility for it. Initially, they informed the police that a trainer had slipped into the pool and drowned. When eyewitness reports contradicted this version of events, the PR machine kicked in and seized upon the fact that Brancheau's long hair had been loose in a ponytail and that she only had herself to blame for  Tilikum grabbing it .Former executive Thad Lacinak spouted this story on ABC News and Brancheau's friends were furious when one of her spotters confirmed it.

This unnamed individual (although he is shown on screen) was criticised by the OSHA during the trial. But Simmons suggests on camera that the arm grab was playful rather than aggressive and that captivity does not send whales insane. SeaWorld's expert witness, Jeff Andrews, said much the same thing on oath and he is outed here with a freeze frame, as he leaves the courtroom. Morino insists that all whales held in such confined spaces are potentially ticking time bombs and Jett disagrees profoundly with Simmons's contention that water parks are vital to raising public consciousness about marine conservation issues. Indeed, he even goes so far as to call them evil places.

Eric Walters cries as he states that Tilikum kills because he has no outlet for his frustrations and Jett confirms that he spends long periods alone, with one clip seeming to show that he remained motionless in the same point in the pool for three hours. All he does now is the big splash finale and it is clear from the footage that his dorsal fin is hideously deformed and that he seems to be going through the motions. Over images of the Free Tilly campaign, Duffus proclaims it a tragic state of affairs and Berg and her fellow born-again trainers do the rounds of news bulletins calling for the end of such barbaric practices. 

On 30 May 2012, Judge Welsch made a number of recommendations, including one that all trainers had to remain behind a barrier away from the orcas. But SeaWorld appealed his findings and it remains open for business, as before. As the film ends, Ray, Berg, Ventre and Gommersall take a boat trip to see whales in the wild, where they should be, and any viewer who isn't left with a profound sense of outrage either has a vested interest in a water park or an incurably hard heart.

There is little left to say at the end of this emotionally draining film. Cowperthwaite (an experienced producer of small-screen wildlife documentaries) and co-scenarist Eli B. Despres lay out their case with a simplicity and clarify that is supporting by admirable restraint and a devastating sense of authority. It might have been useful to have had more dissenting voices on hand, as Simmons lacks charisma and conviction. Moreover, it is never made clear what (if any) scientific contributions aqua centres make along the lines of zoos. But Garrett and Duffus do such a good job deflating any theories that would have been advanced that it is hard to say how useful such a pro-park contribution would have been. Furthermore, the sheer weight of evidence provided by so many disillusioned, angry and self-recriminating ex-employees is overwhelmingly damning and it is difficult not to draw the conclusion that the marine entertainment industry is willing to disregard humane treatment to make a blood-stained buck.

It's a depressing fact, but the more films there are about a pressing ecological issue, the grimmer the situation appears to be. The spate of documentaries about colony collapse disorder and its potentially calamitous consequences already numbers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein's Vanishing of the Bees, Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell's Colony, James Erskine's Who Killed the Honey Bee? (all 2009) and Taggart Siegel's Queen of the Sun (2010). However, Markus Imhoof makes the case even more cogently and disconcertingly in the John Hurt-narrated More Than Honey, which makes exceptional use of cutting-edge technology to shed new light on a topic that means a great deal to the Swiss director, as apiculture has played a key role in his family history.

No one is certain whether Albert Einstein said that humanity would perish within four years of bees becoming extinct, but the prediction's terrible wisdom seems incontrovertible on viewing this sobering survey. Imhoof's grandfather had kept bees and it pains him deeply that their numbers continue to be savagely depleted by a combination of pesticides, parasitic varroa mites, artificial stimulants, a lack of genetic diversity and poor transit methods. Yet, a visit to Alpine apiarist Fred Jaggi proves that even hives kept in clean mountain air are not immune from the problems affecting the rest of the planet and threatening the process of cross-pollination that is vital for the production of so many crucial dietary crops.

Already despondent, Imhoof travels to California to meet John Miller, who transports bees to service the state's vast almond plantations. He first noticed a problem about eight years ago and has become used to finding hundreds of corpses whenever he opens a hive after a long trek. Wondering whether the blight has something to do with the breakdown of the complex social systems that operate within a colony, Imhoof meets Professor Randolf Menzel in Berlin and learns how queens are bred and even sees a bee having a brain scan in a laboratory. Using a mix of CGI and Attila Boa and Jörg Jeshel's remarkable close-up photography, he also shows how bees navigate and how vulnerable these majestic creatures have become to microscopic predators.

Some of the people Imhoof interviews are more concerned with the prospect of lost revenues than the looming environmental crisis. But any hopes that a man-made solution can be devised are quickly dashed by a recce to Northern China, where Zhao Su Zhang considers the inefficiency of attempting to hand-pollinate trees. According to Fred Terry, a switch of dependency from the honey bee to the wild African bee that migrated north from Brazil also seems an unreliable option, although Imhoof seems more interested in their reputation as `killer bees' than their ability to assume duties undertaken with such humbling devotion by their less aggressive cousins. The sole hope seems to lie in the apiary run by Boris Baer and Barbara Baer-Imhoof in the remote Australian city of Perth, as this has so far escaped contamination and Imhoof (who is clearly very proud of his daughter) ponders the lessons that could be shared with other keepers.

Ultimately raising more questions than it provides answers, this is a sincere contribution to a debate that continues to baffle the scientific and apicultural communities. The audiovisual aspect is impeccable and numerous images of hives working and in the aftermath of decimation are unforgettable. But Imhoof neglects to cover industries dependent on honey by-products and rather glosses over the role of consumers in placing a vital species in jeopardy. Nevertheless, this is a passionate and laudably non-simplistic introduction to an emergency whose significance cannot be underestimated.