Joerg Burger’s meticulous and mesmerising study of the Vienna Museum of Natural History is itself a work of natural history, in that it studies its core subject from a number of methodological angles. In one level, it simply puts the displays on display via some exquisitely composed, high-resolution photography that drinks in the rooms, both public and private, where the many collections dwell; vitrine after vitrine, drawer upon drawer, archive boxes until the end of time, with beetles, geological samples, taxidermied birds and botanical samples, each one lovingly tagged and sorted.

That said, the fact that the archive is only maybe 10% digitised and indexed means that the staff clock up kilometres’ worth of walking every day as they search for requested items: as such this is also a study of information science at a point of crisis.

We explore, too, the ethics of museums such as this, founded by wealthy collectors and royalty who plundered colonies and newly discovered lands in the name of science but also for glory. Reparations are made, apologies issued. While gingerly assembling the remains of an elephant for display, a curator explains that this particular beast was killed as recently as the 1970s by one of his predecessors at the museum while on a safari holiday; the skin was shipped back for the collection but most of it rotted and what remains is largely synthetic.

Those who find watching crafters at work are in for a treat, with many soothing minutes devoted to the observation of the museum’s staff endlessly painting, sculpting, scanning and photographing objects. Surprisingly, quite a few of these artisans are volunteers, happy to give their time and expertise to Austrian society out of gratitude for their state benefits. Again, on a meta level the film itself is a work of painstaking crafting, seamlessly edited, fluent, thoughtful and immersive like a visit to the museum itself.

• Archive of the Future is on True Story from 7 March.