Zero Dark Thirty (15)

It's a film whose interrogation scenes have especially caused controversy. The hawks brand the director a traitor while doves suggest she supports the efficacy of torture.

What's not in question is that it's a film which contributes to inciting Islamophobia.

Opening with a blank screen, the title 2001, and a crashing soundtrack, it links "terrorist" attacks around the world before introducing us to CIA operative Maya, played by a stoical Jessica Chastain.

She's being trained in the torture techniques later denied by President Obama.

Breaking with routine, Maya disagrees with her peers' "post-9/11 mentality." In their rush to cover up the complicity of their allies in Pakistan, they've fallen foul of their own racist caricatures.

Like some super-sleuth, Maya decides to do it her way.

"Quite frankly, I didn't even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit," Maya tells the team. "I wanted to drop a bomb and you're going to kill him for me."

Yet apart from the impossibility of one person spending a decade defying the system, we're expected to believe the operation was organised without even a dress rehearsal.

As for eliminating the alleged architect of the September 11 2001 attacks before he could be questioned? For obvious reasons, that's never even considered.

Talk about fanning the flames of fear.