Section spéciale (1975)

Directed by

Costa-Gavras

Genre

drama film, trial film

Country

Germany, France, Italy

Runtime

1h 58m

Rated

U

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 53 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A judge, prosecutors, and government officials in Vichy France create a special court to quickly try and execute political prisoners. The film shows how they manipulate the legal system to serve the regime's agenda.

tensepoliticalhistoricalsomberproceduralcriticalrestrainedslow-burn

What happens

Special Section (French: Section spéciale) is a 1975 French film directed by Costa-Gavras and based on the novel L'affaire de la Section Spéciale by Hervé Villeré. It stars Louis Seigner, Roland Bertin, Michael Lonsdale, Ivo Garrani, François Maistre, Jacques Spiesser, Henri Serre, Heinz Bennent and Claude Piéplu. It is named after the Special Sections of Vichy France. The film shared the Best Director prize at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by the U.S. National Board of Review. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe award for best foreign film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• Verdict (1974)
• Innocents with Dirty Hands (1975)
• Smiling Maniacs (1975)
• The Hole (1960)
• Le vieux fusil (1975)
• Sacco and Vanzetti (1971)
• Sept morts sur ordonnance (1975)