Review by gloria wong.

Among his Barbet Schroeder’s most famous films are General Idi Amin Dada (a documentary about the famous Ugandan ruler who was most recently given a fictional treatment in The Last King of Scotland) and Reversal of Fortune (a docudrama about Claus von Bulow, who may or may not have tried to murder his socialite wife). If there’s one thing Schroeder seems drawn to in his work, it’s characters with a certain moral equivocality. And so it is with his latest documentary, a study of revolutionary French activist/lawyer Jacques Verges, whose client roster includes Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, genocidal Serbian and Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. And Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot? Just a friend.

Schroeder traces the life of this lightening rod for controversy all the way from its unusual beginnings in Thailand as the son of a French diplomat and his Vietnamese wife to his nearly decade-long ‘disappearance’ in the 1970’s and onto a comfortable life in Paris. He had already become a Communist, joined the anti-Nazi Resistance in France, and staunchly supported Algeria’s separation from French rule long before becoming the so-called “Devil’s Advocate”. His life is so deeply entwined with so much of radical politics of the past 60 years that, if it were fiction, it would be very hard to believe.

As you can imagine, the film itself is dense - and long at nearly two and a half hours. Those unfamiliar with or uninterested in political history of the twentieth century, might want to steer clear. Also, if you’re looking for a moral stance from the director, this is not the one for you. If you are game, however, Terror’s Advocate provides a revealing look at the fascinatingly over-the-top life and times of what would seems to be a pretty normal person.

Terror’s Advocate
Barbet Schroeder | France | 2007 | 138min

Fri. Sept. 28 | 7:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Fri. Oct. 5 | 11:00am | Empire Granville Theatre
Thu. Oct. 11 | 12:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre