15 Greatest Movie Endings Of The Decade

10. The Act Of Killing (2012)

It's fair to say that The Act Of Killing is a particularly difficult film to watch. It's important in those terms as well, but also because it offers an unprecedented insight that is shocking and explosive and gripping in equal measure.

Joshua Oppenheimer’s 2012 documentary offers a deeply troubling account of Indonesian men who were promoted from small time crooks to a death squad in the 1960s and butchered thousands of people in the name of cleaning Indonesia of Communism. They - and particularly Anwar Congo (now revered by right-wing paramilitary extremists) - take Oppenheimer through the story of the mass killings of 1965–66, boasting of their feats and telling re-enacted versions of the stories. The result is a strange mix of imagination and fact that is utterly compelling.

The end, though, flips Anwar on his head. When he's forced to confront the idea of his victims as people and not part of his "acting" he breaks down and we see him reliving the trauma. It's as cathartic and difficult as it is important and it's an honour to have been able to see it on-screen.