1. Africa Addio (1966)
To top the list of most despicable films, I am dredging up that old pal of ours - the Mondo Movie - in this case Africa Addio. Declared by many to be the hardest film in the world to watch, I echo this sentiment. I was completely traumatised by this film - in particular by the gratuitous animal slaughter. I watched most of it with my eyes covered and finger on the fast forward button. Directed in 1966 by the two man team behind Mondo Cane - Jacopetti and Prosperi - Africa Addio is a shockumentary that chronicles the decolonisation of Africa and the ensuing political, military and social upheavals. Scenes that are particularly etched upon my poor beleaguered brain include: footage of the Zanzibar Revolution where thousands of Arabs were massacred. The footage captured by Jacopetti and Prosperi is the only visual proof that this massacre occurred. The helicopter camera picks up upon hundreds and hundreds of Arabs in makeshift holding pens, some are trying to run away, many are fleeing to the sea in a futile bid to escape - there are no ships to save them.The next day the helicopter camera picks up the desolate sight of thousands of dead Arabs - bodies on the beach, in the holding camps - everywhere. Genocide of a complete people captured on tape. There are other multiple, sickening brutal acts captured on film. White mercenaries shooting a black man. A pile of severed hands nearly as tall as I am. Mayhem, disorder and violence everywhere. Broken dead bodies littering the streets and as I mentioned before wildly gratuitous animal slaughter that is sickening beyond belief. In all, the period of decolonisation was very unstable and left room for unpleasant elements in Africa to creep in and assert their power. Rather like what happened when the Soviets ended their occupation of Central Asia. This documentary is wildly controversial - probably the most controversial documentary of all time (it's definitely up there with Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies). Accused of racism by most quarters - black and white - it is easy to see how this mutual decision was arrived at. Teenage white South African girls are ogled in filmic slo-mo bouncing up and down on a trampoline, Zulu South African girls are seen adopting the ways of the west - make up, perfume, rock and roll. A family of Boers are shown migrating southwards to South Africa after they have been rejected from their homeland. This scene is heavily romanticised with a glorious sunset background and Riz Ortolani's beautiful swirling soundtrack evoking a tear in the viewer's eye. A young African boy stands in for a fox in an all white foxhunt. A black family move into an abandoned white property and look like they have never seen the inside of a house before. Is Africa Addio a racist movie? Part of me thinks that Jacopetti and Prosperi were just honestly trying to document and portray what they saw. The other part of me thinks that maybe they manipulated footage and played up to ethnic stereotypes - the civilised white Imperialist versus the savage black Africans. I do know that the film has been banned and suppressed in many countries (or released as a best of the gore bits compilation Africa: Blood and Guts). Despite its failings, I think it is a very grave film that captures an important historical era for posterity. The only documentary of its kind. I also think that political correctness has suppressed the access people have to this film. It would incite derision on all sides of the ethnic spectrum. Incidentally, when they got back to Italy, Africa Addio caused such a sensation there was debate about whether some of the events were authentic or staged by the directors. Jacopetti even found himself on a homocide charge for one of the murders in the movie! (he was later acquitted of staging it). Okay, this is a political hot potato of a movie, but an historically very important one. It is also gruesome, grotesque and morbid in the extreme, and the fact that the footage is real - this is real life humanity slaughtering real life humanity - puts it number one in the list. Did I miss any of the most depraved, under-seen movies that have sickened or delighted you? Share your own picks below.