I Accuse (Germany, 1941)
Commissioned by Goebbels. The film comes in support of euthanasia without patient consent. Its point is not so much to convince, but to silence disagreement and it is nauseatingly smart in achieving its goal.
A young and beautiful woman, married to a doctor thinks she's pregnant, but she's actually suffering from an incurable and painful disease. Surrounded by doctors, who love her but are unable to help her get well, you can see where this is going.
This is how Nazi Germany treated the Aryans, what was up for the rest is transparent and very disturbing. I really felt for the rats in the doctor's lab btw
There is also something to be said about necrophilia, once the woman finds out she is ill, she appears as a walking corpse. The men still desire her, but it becomes more and more evident that this desire is wicked and mentally perverse instead of "normal".
The movie was banned after Germany's defeat, but it has been recently (literally a day ago) made available on YT. Must watch to understand fascism.
https://youtu.be/mOxpXNf2JawI Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (USA, 1932) [spoiler alert]
True masterpiece that should get more recognition. A WWI veteran is wrongfully convicted to a chain gang in Georgia. He escapes, starts a new life in Chicago, but Georgian authorities trace him back. He escapes again, but unable to restart his life a second time, he becomes a petty criminal.
Paul Muni is amazing as expected. He was the reason I chose to watch the film, but I found out there was a lot more to it than his performance. The film is based on a true story, that had caused a sensation at the time.
A moving detail that was removed from the film was that the character suffered from shell shock.
Holy Rollers (USA, 2010)
Hasidic Jews smuggling drugs. That's it. All the plot offers you is drama banalities you've seen already a few dozen times on TV series about teenagers - but I was interested enough in the main premise to watch to the end.
It also stars Jesse Eisenberg which helps a lot.
PS The story the movie was (loosely) based on
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/29/nyregion/sentencing-a-drug-courier-judge-rebukes-the-hasidim.html