The power of the image rather the word is something that many documentary filmmakers fail to grasp, afraid to let action rather than dialogue speak the greatest truths or reveal the most surprising twists. Working Man’s Death is a supreme example of knowing how few questions you need to ask when you can utilise the power of a camera to capture incredible worlds in a way never before seen.

Quite simply, this is one of the most stunning documentaries I have ever seen.

Set the task of portraying the reality of hard, potentially soul-destroying, back breaking work, director Micheal Glawogger has fashioned what amounts to a Magnum photographic agency set of photographs com to life in cinematic form. From the “Heroes” of Russia’s miners digging out a livelihood in illegal mines to the Ship salvaging “Brothers” on the Pakistani coast - dangerous, poorly paid and harsh working lives are alive and well in our gleaming, clean progressive 21st century.

After becoming so used to flat, formatted observational filmmaking evident on every TV channel around the world, it’s a shock to the system to see a film constructing sequences like they were for tightly plotted piece of Hollywood fiction. Does this bring into question the “reality” of the lives on show?

Not one bit.

What it shows is that an artistic eye can be applied to reality and create an experience that is beautiful, arresting and thought provoking long after the final credits have rolled.

This is challenging viewing. Serious concentration rewards but there is also one section you should be aware of. “Lions”, set within a Nigerian meat market, shows in fairly unflinching detail the slaughter of cows and goats in some modern-day Hieronymous Bosch-like world.

If you want to be mesmerised by places, realities and smiles in the most unlikely of situations, I cannot recommend this film too strongly. Incredible.