TERROR’S ADVOCATE

France, 2007, 132 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Barbet Schroeder.

For anyone who has the slightest interest in 20th century history, in wars of independence, in contemporary terrorism and the role of politics, law and journalism, this is a must-see film.

The focus is on French lawyer (parents from Vietnam and Reunion) Jacques Verges. Those from the English-language tradition may not know of him but, by the end of the film, we may not yet know him but we know a great deal about him. He himself (at eighty) appears in interviews throughout the film.

His legal life has involved him particularly in Algeria in the 50s and 60s and led to a long life of defence lawyer work. He had contact with Swiss Nazis, with Carlos, with Iranian assassins of the 1980s, with Cambodia, and defence lawyer for Klaus Barbie, ‘the Butcher of Lyon’.

An amazing number of interviewees appear, speaking frankly about their lives and their exploits (especially from the war between France and Algeria). Their comments build up an extraordinarily detailed (and yet this is only partial) account of uprisings, networks, terror bombings.

Congratulations to Barbet Schroeder who has made a documentary that is as interesting and challenging as any of his feature films – or more so.

1.The role of a documentary? The director and his skill in both documentary and feature films? His strong narrative? The insertion of the witnesses? The linear progress of history from the 1940s to the beginning of the 21st century?

2.The film about Jacques Verges? The focus on him, the title, the public perceptions of him, his own interviews, at great length, as a person, his posing? His history, Vietnamese and Reunion parents, his studies, war service, involvement in Algeria, his defence of the bomber, marrying her? A hero for Algerian nationalism? After the end of the war, independence – and what he was do to with the rest of his life after this achievement?

3.The footage of the 1945 massacres in Algeria, the bombs in various cafés and banks in Algiers? The 40s and 50s? Into the 60s? The events, the news excerpts from television, newspaper articles, archives?

4.Verges after Algeria? What to do? Involvement in cases, leaving the left, the communist party? The Nazi connection in Switzerland? His interest in Palestine and Palestinian independence? Verges’ visit to China, received by Mao? His student friendship with Pol Pot, going to Cambodia? The eight years of his disappearance in the 70s? As an agent, the possible theories, his reappearance? The connections with Magdalena Kopp? His debts, to the airlines, repaying them? Cases full of money? His activities in France in the 80s and 90s? With the Iranian assassin? With Klaus Barbie?

5.The Barbie issue, his unpopularity, French expectations of him? His wanting to show that the French in Algeria committed similar atrocities to those of the Gestapo in France?

6.His subsequent clients? Cheyenne Brando, Omar Raddad, the Holocaust denier, Garaudy, his helping Milosovich, offering to defend Saddam, the defence of the president of Kampuchea and crimes against humanity …?

7.His explanations of himself, his stories, his shrewdness in his work, the story of the case and his identifying with the condemned, feeling that he should be a defence lawyer? The change as the years went on, the change in the footage, his talent to disturb, looking more confident, the later images with the cigar, his age?

8.The range of witnesses and their contribution? Consistent, contradictory? Insights into the war in Algeria, the importance of his defending Dgamila Bouhired (and marrying her)? Hans- Joachim Klein as the chauffeur? Sine as the cartoonist, Klaus Croissant and his work in East Germany? The phone calls with Carlos in prison, Weinrich, Carlos’s associate, Magdalena Kopp? The Palestinian connection? Francois Jenoud and the Nazi connection, Palestine? Anis Naccache, Ayatollah Khomeini ordering him to assassinate people from Iran in Paris, his failure, in jail? The range of journalists, the range of lawyers?

9.The film as an opportunity for an audience to learn, fifty years of world history, especially Europe and North Africa, the uprisings, moves to independence, the development of terrorism, the networks, the variety of motivations, betrayals, personal stories, political stories, political stances? Acknowledging the complexity for security in the world today?