The Statement (2003) [N/A]
Featuring:
Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Alan Bates
Written by:
Ronald Harwood
Brian Moore
Directed by:
Norman Jewison
Release Date:
December 12, 2003
Original Title:
The Statement
Alternate Titles:
Caccia all'uomo
Crimes contre l'humanité
The Statement (2003)
Приговор
Genres:
Drama | Thriller
Production Companies:
Astral Media
BBC Film
Company Pictures
Corus Entertainment
Movision
Odessa Films
Serendipity Point Films
Sony Pictures Classics
Téléfilm Canada
Production Countries:
Canada | France | United Kingdom
Ratings / Certifications:
DE: 12 ES: 16
Runtime: 120
At the end of World War II, many of those involved in war crimes were prosecuted. Some got away. Until now.
The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans. Part of the agreement was that the Vichy Government would assist with the 'cleansing' of Jews from France. The Vichy government formed a police force called the Milice, who worked with the Germans...
1992. The French government has passed a law punishing crimes against humanity allowing them to prosecute Nazi collaborators from WWII. Magistrate Annemarie Livi has been assigned the case of Pierre Brossard, a police officer in Dombey, France in June, 1944, when he helped round up a group of Jewish persons and personally chose seven of them to be executed. Brossard was captured and held in police custody in 1955 following a trial where he was sentenced to death for being a collaborator, before he was able to escape. Brossard has since received a Presidential pardon for those crimes. Livi enlists the help of Colonel Roux of the French Army to assist in this case in she not trusting the police who assisted the Vichy regime during the war. While Roux informs her that he is aware of an unknown Jewish organization that is also tracking and wanting to execute Brossard, Livi knows that the pardon was arranged by someone who must have been an associate of Brossard - who she refers to as "The Old Man" - now probably high up in the government. They are also both aware that the Catholic church has actively been assisting Brossard all these years, probably in providing him both with funds and shelter, them being able to break through the closed ranks of the church a major hurdle they will have to overcome. Livi is further given a warning by a close family friend, Armand Bertier, a government minster, that she is walking into a land mine of a case. Brossard, who is aware that he is being tracked both by the Jewish and by the national authorities, is indeed what he considers a devout Catholic in the realm of the traditionalists, he, who trying to stay one step ahead of those tracking him, looking for absolution from the church, while not prepared to give himself up to either the Jewish or the authorities. The Jewish have their own additional motive beyond killing Brossard for his crimes, while those pulling their strings have one more additional motive in protecting themselves.
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