Full Description
A stunning biographical investigation of the infamous Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie, known as "the Butcher of Lyon," who was brought to trial in 1987. Director Ophuls interviews Barbie's victims, accomplices, and associates - Germans, French, Americans and South Americans - over a period of five years on three continents. "These events happened forty years ago. Why can't we live in the present?" protests a French collaborationist who wants to forget what Ophuls persuades him to remember. The film is also an indictment of the West - especially France, the Vatican and the United States - which allowed Barbie's escape to South America after World War II. International Critics Prize, 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
