L’avocat de la terreur

Communist, anti-colonialist or right-wing extremist? Which convictions does the enigmatic, controversial and fascinating lawyer Jacques Vergès hold?
Notorious for his determination and his strange specialism in defending politicians, terrorists and anti-Semitic criminals, in his career Vergès has been ‘bound’ to the greatest crimes against humanity of the twentieth century. As a young lawyer, during the Algerian war, he defended Jamila Bouhired, who had been sentenced to death for bomb attacks. He managed to get her freed, married her and they had two children. At the high point of his career, he disappeared from the stage for eight years that have still not been explained, before taking on the defence of countless terrorists.
Barbet Schroeder’s latest film is a very detailed and committed investigative documentary about the corners of recent history that have not been investigated yet or at least not enough. The study of Vergès is in fact a revealing analysis of 20th-century terrorism. It puts for instance Pol Pot, the Rote Armee Fraktion and the Barbie trial in an interesting new light and looks at several major figures from history, linked together by one of the most striking lawyers ever – to put it mildly.