The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky's dark, hypnotic study of obsession is set in the punishing world of ballet, where serious hard graft doesn't always guarantee results and stardom is perhaps at its most fleeting. Natalie Portman plays Nina, an aspiring lead with a New York dance company, who's determined to win the coveted role of the Swan Queen in an upcoming production of Swan Lake. However, the ballet's director (Vincent Cassel) is sceptical. Though Nina is perfect for the virginal Swan Queen, the shy, repressed dancer struggles to impress him as the Black Swan, her sexually magnetic alter ego. The arrival of the talented and rebellious Lily (Mila Kunis) raises the stakes, and as Nina wrestles with her demons, the film hurtles towards an exhilarating and disturbing climax that will please fans of Roman Polanski's early work. Logic and originality are sometimes lacking, but Aronofsky's bravura direction and Portman's sincere, mesmerising performance paper over those particular cracks.

The story of Nina, a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother Erica who zealously supports her daughter's professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice.