Already explored evocatively by Anton Corbijn’s feature debut Control, the story of Manchester’s most influential musical sons gets a thorough, if slightly mythologising, documentary treatment from Grant Gee in the film Joy Division. The tale that unfolds is, we’re told, not just the story of a pop group but also the story of a city. A star emerges, hollow-eyed and mesmerising. Ian Curtis effectively upstages Manchester; in his damaged soul is a reflection of his blighted home town. Curtis’s alien fragility is emphasised by the blokishness of the interviews with his fellow band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, who say they didn’t realise the extent of Curtis’s depression, which led to his suicide by hanging in 1980.

Although the death of Curtis casts a shadow over the film, there is also a spirit of celebration and genuine admiration for the band. The Factory Records graphic artist Peter Saville, Paul Morley, the late Tony Wilson and Curtis’s Belgian girlfriend Annik Honoré are among the interviewees who contribute to a detailed portrait. But much of the colour comes from Sumner, Hook and Morris, whose drily funny soundbites puncture the occasionally overly reverential tone.

15, 93mins

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