8. Barefoot Gen - Hiroshima
You might be surprised to see an animated film on this list. You might not expect to see truly unforgettable images of horror though a medium most often referred to as 'cartoons'. If so, you've probably not seen
Barefoot Gen. It's a film following the lives of a peasant family very much on the periphery of the Second World War, based writer Keiji Nakazawa's own childhood experiences. The modest existence portrayed in the film makes it clear this isn't a film about sides in a conflict - it's about the suffering of the innocent. If times are hard for these people we witness, it's about to get much harder. Through use of illustrated line and colour washes, director Mori Masaki depicts A-bomb strikes on Japan at the close of WW2 in a way not possible in any other medium. Time slows when the blast strikes, so that victims appear to melt: eyeballs dribble out of sockets as men, women and children succumb to the unthinkable horrors of a nuclear blast. A sustained assault of images takes place where we see the lucky ones disintegrate - those who survive the initial blast stagger around with appalling injuries. Seen as an important contribution to the nuclear debate,
Barefoot Gen makes a deeply profound impression - but it's that nightmare moment when the bomb goes off that will be seared into most viewer's minds for years after.