Terror’s Advocate

About the movie

Barbet Schroeder takes us down history’s darkest paths in his attempt to illuminate the mystery behind Jacques Vergès. As a young lawyer during the Algerian war, Vergès espoused the anti-colonialist cause and defended Djamila Bouhired, ‘la Pasionaria’, who bore her country’s hopes for freedom on her shoulders.
Then suddenly, at the height of an illustrious career, Vergès disappeared without trace for eight years. He re-emerged from his mysterious absence, taking on the defense of terrorists of all kinds.
Terror’s Advocate (L’Avocat de la Terreur), this in-depth documentary by Barbet Schroeder tells the story of the French attorney Jacques Verges who has made a career defending war criminals and terrorists. Pol Pot, high-ranking Nazi Klaus “Butcher of Lyon” Barbie as well as the Algerian War of Independence group has been under Mr. Verges’ guidance in court. In Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2007.

Participating