Morris: A Life With Bells On

Morris might be one of England's core folk traditions, but it's frequently a subject of ridicule. So it's quite an achievement that mockumentary Morris: A Life With Bells On is remarkably un-mocking. Charles Thomas Oldham, star and writer, and Lucy Akhurst, director and supporting actor, have made a film that's humorous but also affectionate and can be enjoyed by morris aficionados and cynics alike. It's also a film that built up an impressive head of steam without even being picked up for conventional distribution - instead, it got into cinemas due to online campaigns and people power. It's a true cult.

A film producer (Aidan McArdle) is making a documentary about one Derecq - that's "D'rek", nor "Derrik" - Twist (Charles Thomas Oldham). Derecq is a tractor mechanic from west Dorset who lives for morris dancing, and is one of the best in the country. The film follows Derecq, and his Millsham Morris team, and talks to various other figures in the scene. There's Professor Chamberlayne (Harriet Walter), a Cambridge scholar who talks about the "Cotswold", the best-known morris dance, as "a distillation of masculinity into dance, a vibrant expression of sensuality..." Then there's Quentin Neely MC CBE (Derek Jacobi), the ultra-traditionalist head of Her Majesty's Morris Circle. Ian Hart, meanwhile, appears as tough Moss Side morrisman Endeavour Hungerfjord-Welsh.

You've got to love a film with characters with names like that. Indeed, all Derecq's team have notable names: his foreman and best friend is Will Frosser, and there's also the puerilely monikered Muff Barcock, a 40 year vet with "hanky scars around his neck", among others. French cult actor Dominique Pinon even pops up as Jean-Baptiste "JB" Poquelin, a French fisherman shipwrecked in Dorset who becomes their sub. The philosophical JB's angle is to use the local cider as a psychoactive to help him achieve a deeper understanding of morris.

The story involves Derecq falling foul of the rules due to his interest in improvising - an absolute no-no to the Morris Circle. Before he has had the chance to fulfil his life's ambition of dancing the legendary 'Threeple Hammer Damson', he and Millsham are rusticated and their hankies confiscated. It's a tragedy but the producer intervenes and encourages Derecq to go to California, where he's a hero among Orange County Morris, a boy band-like team that's owned by one Miroslav Villandry (Greg Wise), a hippy philanthropist and patron of folk dance in America. Will this be Derecq's liberation?

Working from an obviously tight budget, Oldham and Akhurst have achieved impressive results: the film's well scripted, but also well crafted. They even manage to just about pull off having a beach in Poole masquerade as LA's Venice. Akhurst has been a presence in British film and TV since the mid-1990s, but this is her directing debut, and likewise the film heralds the arrival of Oldham, a former lawyer. Oldham is no outsider to morris though - he lived with a morris family as a youth, which helped them hit that sweet spot for the film, where it's funny about morris without any meanness. Indeed, the film has proved popular among the morris community, evidently glad for their passion to get such a public airing that's not just fond, it's even informative.

Although This Is Spinal Tap co-creator Christopher Guest might have British aristocratic heritage, he and his line in mockumentaries - Best In Show, A Mighty Wind etc - are very much American. Our home-grown mockumentary tradition probably had its best exponent in Victoria Wood's TV shows, but in terms of feature films, Mike Bassett: England Manager and It's All Gone Pete Tong aren't exactly classics. So Morris: A Life With Bells On immediately steps into the position of our best mockumentary feature to date, if you discount the more confrontational work of Sacha Baron Cohen. It's up there with the Aussie loo comedy Kenny as a disarming, surprise joy.