A ground‎-breaking comparative treatment of cinematic images of atrocity‎,‎ combining critical perspectives on contemporary film and human rights‎.‎ A few days after 9/11‎,‎ us vice‎-president dick cheney invoked the need for the usa to work ‎'‎the dark side‎'‎ in its global ‎'‎war on terror‎'‎‎.‎ Cinema of the dark side explores how contemporary cinema treats state‎-sponsored atrocity‎,‎ evoking multiple landscapes of state terror‎.‎ Investigating the ethical potential of cinematic atrocity images‎,‎ this book argues that while films help to create and confirm normative perceptions about atrocities‎,‎ they can also disrupt those perceptions and build alternatives‎.‎ Asserting a crucial distinction between morality and ethics‎,‎ a new conceptualisation of human rights cinema is proposed‎,‎ one that repositions human rights morality within an ethical framework that reflects upon the causes and contexts of violence‎.‎ It builds upon theories of embodied spectatorship to offer a new perspective on the ethics of spectatorship‎,‎ providing readers with fresh insights into how we respond to atrocity images and the ethical issues at stake‎.‎ Covering a diverse spectrum of 21st century cinema‎,‎ this books deals with documentary or fictional representations of atrocity such as state‎-sanctioned torture‎,‎ genocide‎,‎ enforced disappearance‎,‎ deportation‎,‎ and apartheid‎.‎ Close analysis of contemporary films includes zero dark thirty ‎(‎2012‎)‎‎,‎ standard operating procedure ‎(‎2008‎)‎‎,‎ hotel rwanda ‎(‎2004‎)‎‎,‎ sometimes in april ‎(‎2005‎)‎‎,‎ nostalgia for the light ‎(‎2010‎)‎‎,‎ chronicle of an escape ‎(‎2006‎)‎‎,‎ children of men ‎(‎2006‎)‎‎,‎ district 9 ‎(‎2009‎)‎‎,‎ waltz with bashir ‎(‎2008‎)‎‎,‎ and paradise now ‎(‎2005‎)‎‎.‎ It is a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers in film studies and human rights alike‎.‎