The film shows Corporal Donald Payne, formerly of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, shouting and swearing at the Iraqis as they are forced to maintain painful "stress positions".

One of the detainees, hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, 26, died while in the custody of the British soldiers in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003.

The wide-ranging inquiry will look into his death and the British Army's use of so-called conditioning techniques to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.

The hearing was told that Mr Mousa died at about 10pm on September 15, 2003, after a "struggle" with Cpl Payne and another soldier, Private Aaron Cooper.

Gerard Elias QC, counsel to the inquiry, said witnesses suggested that Cpl Payne was trying to restrain Mr Mousa by putting his knee on the detainee's back and pulling his arm back to put plastic handcuffs on him.

He went on: "It has been suggested that Baha Mousa's head was banged on the floor or wall as this was happening."

Different pathologists gave the cause of Mr Mousa's death as either asphyxia and multiple injuries or asphyxia alone, the inquiry heard.

Mr Elias said of the film: "This was not at the point of capture, not while the detainees were in transit, but when they were in an enclosed - or relatively enclosed - building at BG Main (the base where detainees were taken) with soldiers to guard them to prevent escape."

Mr Mousa sustained 93 separate injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken nose, after being transferred to a British military base following a weapons raid on the hotel where he worked.

Mr Mousa's 22-year-old wife had died of cancer shortly before his detention, meaning his two young sons, Hussein and Hassan, were orphaned.

Seven soldiers faced a courts martial at Bulford Camp, Wiltshire, on war crimes charges relating to the receptionist's death. All but one were cleared on all counts in March 2007.

However, the Ministry of Defence agreed last July to pay £2.83m in compensation to the families of Mr Mousa and nine other Iraqi men mistreated by British troops.