The Goldman Case (12A)

★★★★ A gripping French courtroom drama with a chaotic energy, the reconstruction of the 1976 trial of voluble and charismatic leftist Pierre Goldman tackles antisemitism and history. ~ The Guardian.

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This tense, immersive courtroom drama is set in November 1975, Paris, where the appeal hearing of Jewish far-left activist Pierre Goldman is set to begin.

Sentenced to life imprisonment for four armed robberies, one of which resulted in the death of two women, Goldman pleads not guilty to the murder charges.

The massively covered court proceedings transform Goldman into a romantic figure and a hero of the intellectual left, even as the relationship with his young attorney Georges Kiejman frays.

Ever the agitator for his ideals, the elusive and mercurial Goldman throws his own trial into chaos, risking a death sentence.

The Goldman Case paints a psycho-pathological portrait of a militant revolutionary, but also of a society torn apart by patterns of racism and injustice that are still virulent today.

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★★★★ Arieh Worthalter excels as a brittle but charismatic French leftwing intellectual mounting a dogged defence in this pulsing account of a 1976 murder retrial. ~ Financial Times.

★★★★ This real-life courtroom showdown makes for thrilling drama. Those who savoured the Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall will find much to relish in this recreation of a far-left activist’s murder trial.~ The Telegraph.