Stuttgart 1960 - when choreographer John Cranko (Sam Riley) lands by plane, he has no idea that this moment will change his entire life. Cranko has been engaged as a guest choreographer at the Stuttgart Ballet for a limited period of time. In London, where he had to endure numerous humiliations, including being banned from working, because of his homosexuality, nothing could hold him back. In tranquil Baden-Württemberg, John Cranko recovers from his humiliating experiences. Here, nobody seems to be bothered by his unconventional lifestyle. After a short time, Cranko becomes ballet director, the darling of the audience, devotes himself to his art and an intoxicating lifestyle, has affairs, suffers private setbacks and deep crises, runs his office in the theater canteen and refers to his company as 'his children'. The rapid and steep rise to the top of the world, the “Stuttgart Ballet Miracle”, made John Cranko a superstar of his time. Driven by his obsession and passion for his work, John Cranko is always in search of perfection - a grueling life that drew on the full - and was to come to a tragic end... “The dancers are reflected in the man's pupil, spreading, folding and unfolding like in a kaleidoscope. In this way, the eye leads us directly into the artist's head, into the imagination of the visionary choreographer John Cranko, who was born in South Africa in 1927. [...] Hardly anyone today works on a life from the cradle to the grave. Joachim A. Lang, who has stated that this is not a biopic, but a film that aims to capture the soul of dance, limits Cranko's life to the twelve years between 1961 and 1973. [...] Lang is less interested in the biographical key points than in what defines and drives the artist, his inspirations and the attitude to life that channels them, above all a great longing for love and family. [...] Sam Riley embodies the title character - as movingly as he played the Joy Division singer Ian Curtis at the beginning of his career, he succeeds here once again in credibly bringing a deceased icon to life, under the strict gaze of those who experienced Cranko personally.” (Anke Sterneborg, on: epd-film.de)