Terror's Advocate (2007)

Original title

L'avocat de la terreur

Directed by

Barbet Schroeder

Genre

documentary film

Country

France

Runtime

2h 15m

Rated

14A

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 38 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary examines the career of Jacques Vergès, a lawyer who represented clients connected to terrorist groups from the 1960s onward. It uses interviews and archival material to look at his work with people involved in anti-imperialist movements in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

informationalunhurriedneutralintellectualsoberobservationaldenseprobing

What happens

Terror's Advocate (French: L'Avocat de la terreur) is a 2007 French feature documentary film on controversial lawyer Jacques Vergès. Produced by Rita Dagher and directed by Barbet Schroeder, it explores how Vergès assisted, from the 1960s onwards, anti-imperialist terrorist cells operating in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The film contains no narration and uses archival footage, stills and interviews to propel the plot forward. It features interviews with Vergès himself, with people involved in his life, and with people who have investigated it. Participants interviewed include Algerian nationalists Yacef Saadi, Zohra Drif, Djamila Bouhired and Abderrahmane Benhamida, Khmer Rouge members Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, once far-left activists Hans-Joachim Klein and Magdalena Kopp, terrorist Carlos the Jackal, lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, neo-Nazi Ahmed Huber, Palestinian politician Bassam Abu Sharif, Lebanese politician Karim Pakradouni, political cartoonist Siné, former spy Claude Moniquet, novelist and ghostwriter Lionel Duroy, and investigative journalist Oliver Schröm. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and won the César Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 33rd César Awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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