In 2013, renowned ballet director Sergei Filin was doused with acid by a masked attacker, right outside his own home. No, that isn’t a cheesy subplot you missed in [Insert Ballet Drama Here], that’s just one of the scandals in which the Bolshoi Ballet has found itself enmeshed in recent years.

HBO’s latest documentary, Bolshoi Babylon, premiered December 21, as a chronicle of the attack, the ensuing regime change, and the long, storied history of controversy in the Bolshoi. Following the attack on Mr. Filin, Pavel Dmitrichenko admitted to arranging the assault on the director, for the reason that he and his ballerina girlfriend were being held back unfairly in the company.

The sentiment is echoed by a couple of principal dancers who were interviewed, highlighting the history of favoritism and corruption in the company. Less than a year after the acid attack, the only American ballerina to have ever been accepted into the Bolshoi Ballet quit, on the grounds of extortion. That isn’t covered in the film’s scope.

There’s a very clear ‘us vs. them’ mentality that overtakes the dancers when it comes to management. Many dancers feel that they’ve been or are being treated unfairly when it comes to casting, and there is even evidence of dancers being pushed out of the company or being minimized onstage. This is reflected in the announcement of the dancers who appeared in court as character witnesses. Several dancers appeared in defense of Mr. Dmitrichenko, while others testified against him, their loyalties lying with Mr. Filin.

Mr. Filin admits to a change in feelings toward him once he became management. “There was a completely different attitude to me,” he tells filmmakers.

The documentary gets into the acid-throwing scandal through interviews, news clips, and court footage. None of it sheds any new light on the story that made international headlines nearly three years ago, but it gives the viewer a full picture of the incident and its context within not only the Bolshoi, but the Russian culture. What’s most striking about this is the fact that turmoil in the ballet is indicative of turmoil in the greater Russian zeitgeist. The attack on Sergei Filin pushes many Russians, both ballet-goers and not, to despair.

“The Soviet Years” are often referenced throughout the film, and the Kremlin is portrayed as a continuous dark presence, lurking always within view of the Bolshoi. The theater’s well-known political and historical ties are highlighted, and newly appointed Bolshoi Theater General Director Vladimir Ulin openly admits that corruption is “no secret” in the Bolshoi, though the film declines to delve any deeper than what’s on the surface.

Mr. Ulin comes in as an enforcer—committed to a new chapter that shrugs off the heavy shroud of controversy in the epic of the Bolshoi. The most compelling scene in the film comes after Mr. Filin returns to the ballet. Both Ulin and Filin are open about their tumultuous history prior to the Bolshoi, and the two have it out during a kind of all-hands meeting. After a tiny power struggle—install a gym or hold Pilates classes?—Mr. Filin retreats with his tail between his legs, and I actually found that I had been holding my breath.

As a whole, the film is visually striking, and certainly intriguing to former dancers and balletomanes. Where the behind-the-scenes aspects are concerned, this is a rare glimpse behind the curtain of the fabled Bolshoi Ballet, and that in and of itself makes it worth watching. However, those hoping for any true dirt on Sergei Filin, or for a damning underbelly of the dazzling Russian ballet, will find themselves slightly disappointed. In the end, the documentary doesn’t tell us much more than we already know—neither about the Bolshoi, nor about ballet itself.