Director – Cédric Kahn – 2023 – France – Cert. 12a – 115m
****
An acerbic, left-wing revolutionary in the dock protests his innocence on counts of murder he claims he did not commit – true life, courtroom drama is out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, September 20th
Before this courtroom drama, which is based on an actual trial in 1975 concerning incidents in 1969 and 1970, gets fully under way, and after a brief title card explaining that left wing Jew Pierre Goldman (Arieh Worthalter from Girl, Lukas Dhont, 2018) was imprisoned on four counts of robbery, but insists that he’s not guilty of causing the two deaths in the pharmacy incident, and that a retrial is pending, two of his defence lawyers meet in an office to discuss his decision to drop one of them, M. Kiejman (Arthur Harari from Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet, 2023; Onoda: 10, 000 Nights in the Jungle, Arthur Harari, 2021), something neither of the defence lawyers want. Clearly, M. Goldman is a difficult client.
After people arrive in a courtroom thronging with photographers, Goldman is led into the dock, and is immediately met with shouts of “Goldman, innocent” from his supporters.… Read the rest