Communiste, anticolonialiste, d’extrême droite ? Quelle conviction guide Jacques Vergès ?
Barbet Schroeder mène l’enquête pour élucider le « mystère ».
Au départ de la carrière de cet avocat énigmatique : la guerre d’Algérie et Djamilah Bouhired, la pasionaria qui porte la volonté de libération de son peuple. Le jeune homme de loi épouse la cause anticolonialiste, et la femme. Puis disparaît huit ans. À son retour, Vergès défend les terroristes de tous horizons (Magdalena Kopp, Anis Naccache, Carlos) et des monstres historiques tels que Barbie.
D’affaires sulfureuses en déflagrations terroristes, Barbet Schroeder suit les méandres empruntés par « L’avocat de la terreur », aux confins du politique et du judiciaire.
Le cinéaste explore, questionne l’histoire du « terrorisme aveugle » et met à jour des connexions qui donnent le vertige.

avec
JACQUES VERGÈS
MAGDALENA KOPP
ANIS NACCACHE
POL POT
CARLOS THE JACKAL
KLAUS BARBIE

Réalisateur : Barbet SCHROEDER

Images : Caroline CHAMPETIER (A.F.C), Jean-Luc PERREARD
Monteuse : NELLY QUETTIER

Productrice : Rita DAGHER
CoProducteur : Vincent Maraval

PRODUCTION : YALLA FILMS, WILD BUNCH

avec la participation de CANAL+

The film is a biography of controversial French lawyer Jacques Vergès, who joined the Algerian National Liberation Front.


A provocative portrait of Jacques Vergès, controversial French lawyer, war veteran and revolutionary. For more than half-a-century, he has consorted with and defended some of the most infamous figures of the post-WW2 era, including Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Carlos the Jackal, Klaus Barbie and other despots, mass-murderers and terrorists. Who is Jacques Vergès? Moral conscience or dark shadow? A manipulative, self-promoting, amoral exploiter of human misery, or a brave, indefatigable defender of human dignity?


A provocative, unsettling feature-length documentary film by Barbet Schroeder about Jacques Vergès, the highly controversial French lawyer, war veteran, revolutionary, agitator and intellectual popularly known as’The Devil’s Advocate’ and reviled as such by his critics for his persistent defence of those many perceive as the indefensible.

Any honest, balanced film about Vergès is bound to be as controversial and provocative as the man himself. This film, directed by Barbet Schroeder, no stranger to disturbing subject matter, will be impartial and straight forward, in the stark tradition of the director whose films like MORE, IDI AMIN DADA and BARFLY have taken audiences into dark places many of them would prefer to have avoided.

All his charm and urbanity notwithstanding, Vergès represents a doorway to some very dark places indeed. For more than half-a-century, he has consorted with some of the most infamous figures of the post-WW2 era, including Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Carlos the Jackal, Klaus Barbie and other despots, tyrants, mass-murderers, torturers and terrorists of one political hue or another. Some were his clients, others his friends.

As a criminal lawyer, Vergès is quite forthcoming about his general motivations. « Evil fascinates me, » he has said. « The more a man is accused the more interested I am. » Vergès contends that crime is what separates men from beasts. He professes great empathy for the world’s « accused ».

Who is Jacques Vergès? Moral conscience or dark shadow? A manipulative, self-promoting, unscrupulous, amoral exploiter of misery as his critics claim, or a sensitive, empathetic defender of human dignity, even when the right to that dignity is claimed by individuals who have denied it to their victims?

Directed by Barbet Schroeder

Cast
JACQUES VERGÈS
MAGDALENA KOPP
ANIS NACCACHE
POL POT
CARLOS THE JACKAL
KLAUS BARBIE

PRODUCER – Rita DAGHER

DP: Caroline CHAMPETIER A.F.C, Jean-Luc PERREARD

DIRECTOR – Barbet SCHROEDER

EDITOR –
NELLY QUETTIER

PRODUCTION –
YALLA FILMS, WILD BUNCH
WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF –
CANAL+


FESTIVALS


CANNES 2007
* UN CERTAIN REGARD

TORONTO 2007
* Selection

SAN SEBASTIAN 2007
* Selection

LONDON 2007
* Selection

SAO PAULO 2007
* Selection

VIENNALE 2007
* Selection

CÉSARS 2008
* WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

ROTTERDAM 2008
* Selection

HONG KONG 2008
* Selection

ISTANBUL 2008
* Selection

BUENOS AIRES 2008
* Selection