Carlos the Jackal

2009 Director Olivier Assayas

This is Assayas' biographical film of the ultra-left-wing Venezuelan terrorist, mercenary or revolutionary, depending on your point of view, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, popularly known as "Carlos the Jackal."

It is broken into 3 distinct periods covering 1974 to 1993. The first deals with his Arab connections and the build up to the OPEC event. The second deals with the OPEC event and its fall out. The third takes up the story from when he obtains Syrian protection until his abduction and arrest by the French.

At six hours long, there is enough time to give this complex subject enough depth. It encapsulates the emotion of those turbulent years very accurately. The interconnections that the Palestinian cause had were truly mind boggling. This is a rare insight into a historical era that is largely untaught in the west. Once seen it is the sort of film that you can dip in and out of forever.