Tina (2021)

Directed by: Daniel Lindsay, TJ Martin | 118 minutes | documentary, biography, music | Starring: Tina Turner, Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, Ike Turner, Kurt Loder, Erwin Bach, Katori Hall, Rhonda Graam, Annie Behringer, Roger Davies, Lejeune Richardson, Jimmy Thomas, Carl Arrington, Terry Britten

‘The woman who taught Mick Jagger to dance’, the anecdote goes. The rotten life of Tina Turner, which started as a soul singer alongside husband Ike, eventually became a resounding solo success. After years of financial and physical abuse by the man who made her great and small, Turner grew into a global star in the 1980s, an unexpected icon on the stage of sold-out sports stadiums.

Anna Mae Bullock was born in 1939 on the cotton plantations, as an unwanted child of a single mother and gave birth to a child herself in the 1950s. She is now a well-preserved crackling boy, partly thanks to blood transfusions in her current domicile in Switzerland. Anyone who makes a documentary about her can go either way: a tragic life story, a success story, a one-sided tribute to a cat with nine lives.

The nice thing about this documentary is that there is no choice. ‘Tina’ offers a rock-solid, chronological visual story with a focus on the key moments in Turner’s career. She found her solo breakthrough ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ from 1984, originally intended for Eurovision winners Bucks Fizz, initially ‘rubbish’. The fact that she finally managed to make the song her own is such an anchor point that you can use.

Much was already known, it never gets boring; ‘Tina’ is a professional ego document – ​​intensely personal without becoming a cry story. Simply because you can interview this iron lady in a classic hall or sweating in a mini dress, it is always believable and charismatic. The artist Tina Turner is a chunk of raw perfection with a strong story. There are few like her; a documentary maker cannot go wrong with it.

Is there no news to be had then? Perhaps the fact that the film is dedicated to her eldest son Craig, who passed away in 2018. And that she again involves Ike in the end of the story. Ike Turner (whose last name she always kept) died in 2007. The self-made woman Tina Turner has looked back with forgiveness ever since. Forgiveness brings redemption, otherwise you will only torment yourself, she says. Who are we to deny it.