L'Avocat de la terreur (2007)

Wes Anderson's recom was the catalyst for this choice. This documentary from Barbet Schroeder examines the man known as Terror's Advocate, Frenchman and defense attorney Jacques Verges. Verges is perhaps best known for defending war criminal like Slovadon Milosovich and Klaus Barbie, but he can also be found defending those engaging in the most heinous acts of terror {and typically supporting the Palestinian cause}.

For what it is, Terror's Advocate, is a provocative documentary of a cocky, arrogant, slick cosmopolitan who has made it his profession to humanize those who have murdered, assassinated, and maimed people who have stood against them. Terror's Advocate is a fascinating and angering look as Verges, but the film really stands as a history lesson on the rise of terrorism--ultimately examining the founding fathers of car/cafe bombings. Verges' relationships with them become merely a footnote.

Here's the thing. Raised as seeing right and wrong as different as black and white, I take offense at this man's profession. Wrong is wrong. It doesn't matter that you did it for the 'right' reasons. Murder and maiming accomplish nothing other than to establish you, the killer, as inhumane. Watching this man, decriminalize obvious genocidal maniacs is an assault on my intelligence. This doc made me angry.

As I see it, kept in context, Terror's Advocate is an eye-opening, polarizing documentary that successfully examines the 'other side'. Still, the human in me sees this man {and all that he stands for} as wrong.