Out of this list, Dark City, The Truman Show and Brazil remain three of my favourite films of all time. If you haven’t seen them, I highly recommend you do. I have to watch Waking Life, never seen it. The others are pretty fun as well. Donnie Darko, Matrix, and I Heart Huckabees are brilliant films. If you haven’t seen them, I’d put them up there on the list.

My English teacher once told me that good short stories were the ones that spoke to universal truths.

These were the stories that go beyond mere characters and their antics through an imaginary universe. They offer an insight into the human condition: what is life? what is truth? what is reality?

The same could be said for memorable films. Only films convey their meaning in a more sensory way – using both audio and visual elements to enter the mind of the viewer.

And perhaps even shift your perspective.

The following 10 films are chosen because they shed light on the forces at work within our lives, this very moment. They use satire and metaphor to approach the truths that would otherwise be too difficult to understand, or too terrifying to comprehend.

Most of all, these films challenge you to wake up.