Women of Algiers in Their Apartment

In 1929 in the Australian outback, an Aboriginal stockman named Sam Kelly kills a white man in self-defense and runs with his wife. A posse follows, and the film unspools the chase across a landscape that doesn't care. Thornton, an Aboriginal director, shoots the frontier like a western that remembers who it left out.

Why it’s here: The film takes the western and turns it around. What's punk is Thornton's refusal to let the story be about white guilt: the camera stays with Sam. What's pedagogical is how it puts the law on trial. Pairs with The Secret River, Dark Emu and Carpentaria. Note: violence, including a sexual assault and racist abuse; slow and spare. The cast includes Sam Neill and Bryan Brown.

After a fire at a Bucharest nightclub kills 27 people, dozens more die in hospitals from infections that should not have killed them. A team of reporters at a sports newspaper starts digging, and discovers that hospital disinfectants were diluted and the cover-up reached the health ministry. The film follows the journalists and a new minister who tries to clean it up from inside.

Why it’s here: It's the documentary about what corruption does to a body. What's punk is the sports journalists who refused to leave a story to someone more senior. What's pedagogical is that it lets viewers see what a whistleblower costs, and what the system does with the answer. Pairs with Citizenfour, Coded Bias (suggested 10-28) and Inside Job (suggested 11-01). Note: hospital scenes with burned patients; the film ends without a clean win.