Run time: 116 mins

(Subtitled)

An electrifying courtroom drama, based on a real 1976 case, calls the very nature of equality and justice into question.

The film depicts the appeal hearing of Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter). He is a Jewish far-left activist sentenced to life imprisonment for having committed four armed robberies and being involved in the death of two women in one of them. During the court case, Goldman keeps pleading not guilty to the murder charges, claiming that “I am innocent because I am innocent,” as he often intervenes during the hearing, causing conflict with his lawyer. At large, this real-life story also speaks to the bigger historical context of France at the time, a country torn apart by racism and injustice.

That we effectively learn about the volatile, self-assured Goldman and his past on the fly is appropriate, given the surprises he keeps springing on his exasperated legal team. Its take on the genre is refreshingly austere — with the action, following a brief prologue in lawyers’ chambers, never leaving the tense confines of the court — following a similar tone laid down by Anatomy of a Fall