8. Land Without Bread
Land Without Bread or "Las Hurdes" is one of the most haunting pieces of documentary work ever beamed up onto the big screen, but for reasons a little different than most. With legendary avant-garde filmmaker Luis Bunuel pulling the strings, Land Without Bread is surreal, controversial, and at times downright unsettling. Venturing into the mountainous area of Las Hurdes, Bunuel's camera exposes this region of Spain as one of abhorrent decay and poverty. He films images of toothless women, dying children and rotting animals, yet provides a narrative voiceover that appears almost cruelly disconnected from the images of depravity on screen. Immediately banned upon release in Spain, Bunuel's work from 1933 was considered as a film that portrayed the country in unnecessarily repugnant taste and light. Whether Bunuel faked the entire documentary remains a matter of debate to this day. Ever the provocateur, Bunuel will be resting happy for having created such a creepy work that still refuses to be categorized in any concrete way. Is it a travelogue? A surrealist film? An outright documentary? Who knows. But it's sure as hell unnerving.