10 Controversial Documentaries Since 2000 That Shouldn't Be Ignored

5. The Act Of Killing

One of the most bizarre, inventive, thought-provoking documentaries ever made, Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing (co-directed by an anonymous Indonesian) challenges former Indonesian death-squad members to re-enact their torturous killings in the guise of a cinematic genre. This leads weirdly - hauntingly - to a film of murderers acting out their proverbial greatest hits while acting like 30s gangsters or 80s action heroes. It's an ingenious setup, one that not only asks questions about the nature of cinematic violence and its relation to actual, human violence, but also one that confronts the murderers with their own sins, forcing them to confront their own morality in the face of what they have done. Capped off by one of the great endings in modern cinema (in any genre), The Act of Killing ends with Anwar, the general with whom we spend most time throughout the film, retching in a courtyard as he describes how he killed a man there. The sound he makes, that of vomit that won't come up because his insides are arid and baron, is one of the most atonal, discordant, horrific soundbites in all of film.