The Child I Never Was

This dispassionate portrait of a serial killer—based on the case of German teenager Jürgen Bartsch, who in the early 1960s murdered four younger boys and tried to kill a fifth—is intensely disturbing without being graphic. Writer-director Kai S. Pieck is clearly fascinated by the contradictions between what his subject says and what actually transpired. But it's Schenke and Urzendowsky's dual performances as Bartsch that elevate the film above freak-of-the-week status. Neither shies away from the monstrousness of this murderer's acts, while offering sad glimpses of the stunted boy inside the beast.