L’Avocat de la terreur (2007) - film review

Jacques Vergès is arguably the most infamous lawyer of the Twentieth Century.  He established his notoriety early on his career by successfully defending the anti-French bomber Djamila Bouhired during the Algerian War in the 1950s.  Since then, his illustrious clients have included the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the revolutionary Carlos the Jackal and the Serbian dictator Slobodan Miloševic’, as well as a host of hijackers, terrorists and dictators who are too numerous to mention.  In many people’s minds, Vergès is a despicable apologist for some of the worst villains in living memory.  But what is the reality?  Was he guided by an underlying conviction in his work, was he simply addicted to controversy, or was he merely a professional lawyer, committed to the process of the law?  In this documentary, Barbet Schroeder conducts his own investigation and sheds some light on the mystery that is Jacques Vergès, the so-called advocate of terror.

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