Patricia Ruanne

A ballet dancer struggles with his homosexuality and the increasing allure of a young ballerina who seeks to draw him away from his domineering lover.

Despite his HIV-positive diagnosis in the early 1980s, Russian-born ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev continued to dance and work as the director of the Paris Opera, as chronicled in this documentary that focuses on Nureyev's final years. Through interviews with colleagues and friends and archival footage of his performances, the film touches on the dancer's early years, his success and his later years as he struggled to continue dancing.

Prince Siegfried is celebrating his coming of age. The Queen Mother informs him that, the following day, during the grand ball held to mark his birthday, he must choose a future wife. Displeased at not being able to choose her out of love, he goes into the forest during the night. It is then that he spots a flock of swans. He raises his crossbow, prepares to shoot, but stops immediately: before him stands a beautiful woman dressed in white swan feathers, followed by twelve other women dressed in the same way, four of whom are nicknamed ‘little swans’. ‘Swan Lake’ is a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, comprising four acts and four scenes, or three acts and four scenes. The staging is based on a libretto by Vladimir Begichev and Vasili Geltser. The story is an ancient German legend recounting the tale of the beautiful Princess Odette, transformed into a swan by the curse of the evil sorcerer Rothbart. Recorded live at the Palais Garnier, Paris, on 17 December 2005.