Too much torture in Zero Dark Thirty?

Director Kathryn Bigelow has defended the depiction of torture in her latest film Zero Dark Thirty, a dramatisation of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

"It's part of the story," she told the BBC's Will Gompertz. "To omit it would have been whitewashing history."

Zero Dark Thirty has drawn criticism from within the US government with some senators complaining it perpetuates "the myth that torture is effective".

However, the film, she said, shows "a pretty wide array of tactics" being used over the 10 years it took to identify Bin Laden's hiding place.

He was eventually tracked down to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the storming of which by US Navy Seals in May 2011 forms the climax of Bigelow's drama.