Magdalena Kopp

Documentary about the German Magdalena Kopp, wife and accomplice of political terrorist Carlos the Jackal. The film takes the audience on Magdalena Kopp’s and her daughter's journey beyond the shadows of his myth.

On December 21, 1975, six terrorists from the Revolutionary Cells, led by Carlos 'The Jackal' forced their way into the conference room of the OPEC headquarters in Vienna and took seventy ministers hostage. A gun battle with the police ensued, and three people were killed. One terrorist was seriously wounded. The terrorists managed to escape to Algiers with a few hostages and the wounded man. There the hostages were released. The wounded terrorist was Hans-Joachim Klein. At the moment that Klein arrived in Algiers, he decided to quit terrorism.

Barbet Schroeder mène l'enquête pour élucider le "mystère" Jacques Vergès. Au départ de la carrière de cet avocat énigmatique : la guerre d'Algérie, Djamilah Bouhired, la pasionaria qui porte la volonté de libération de son peuple. Le jeune homme de loi épouse la cause anticolonialiste, et la femme. Puis disparaît huit ans. A son retour, Vergès défend les terroristes de tous horizons (Magdalena Kopp, Anis Naccache, Carlos), des monstres historiques tels que Klaus Barbie. D'affaires sulfureuses en déflagrations terroristes, Barbet Schroeder suit les méandres empruntés par "l'avocat de la terreur", aux confins du politique, du judiciaire. Le cinéaste explore, questionne l’histoire du « terrorisme aveugle » et met à jour des connexions qui donnent le vertige...

Who are the men and women who bring bloody death to innocent civilians? Why do they do it? What are their methods? And how do they justify it?