A ballet dancer with serious psychological issues is obsessed with becoming prima ballerina for Swan Lake.

Picture gallery

Inhibited and neurotic due to her suffocating and controlling mother, who blames the girl's birth 28 years prior for the disruption of her own career, a dancer named Nina dances for a prestigious New York ballet company and dreams of becoming prima ballerina for Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. While her repressed character and excellent technique are perfect for the virginal White Swan, Nina knows she doesn't have what it takes for the Black Swan: her coldness is a handicap for the devious and sensual role. The arrival of a talented competitor plunges Nina into paranoia and horror...

In the wake of his brilliant and in some points similar The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is a superb psychological drama about madness that pays homage to classics like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Joseph Manckiewicz's All About Eve and especially Roman Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant. Disturbing and savage, but fascinating.