Pierre Laval (28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was THE emblematic figure of French collaboration. After the Liberation (1945), he was arrested, found guilty of High treason, and executed by firing squad.
He was, of course, not the only ‘collaborator’, but probably the most prolific – he went as far as proclaiming, on 22 June 1942, that he wished to see Nazi Germany triumph. In time, he became the perfect villain who was blamed for a dark chapter in history which everyone wanted to forget.
French film director Yves Boisset looks at the real tragedy of Laval (interpreted by French actor Christophe Malavoy) which lies in his disastrous decision to collaborate with Germany – a decision that made a whole nation the accomplice of the worst crimes of the Nazi regime.
The film relies on abundant archive material – radio and film recordings – and its prologue and epilogue are dramatised sequences of Laval’s trial, his attempted suicide and, finally, his execution by firing squad.