A warning firstly: news footage of the Cronulla riots is still almost sickeningly confronting all these years later.

The year's most provocative Australian film, the black comedy Down Under, starts with four minutes of the ugly mayhem that broke out at the Sydney beach just before Christmas in 2005.

It's initially a sunny festive scene, with beachgoers in Santa caps enjoying the surf as a cheerful carol plays.

But events take a nasty turn as Shire locals turn on outsiders from the western suburbs, with fights spilling from the beachfront to the nearby streets and railway station.