My Enemy's Enemy

A documentary about Klaus Barbie. Barbie was head of the Gestapo in Lyon during the war. There are records of torture and deportation by the unit under him; the death of the resistance leader Jean Moulin and the deportation of children taken from an orphanage are attributed to him. When the war ended France looked for him. He was not found. The documentary's real subject is what came after: Barbie went to work for American intelligence. The reason is simple and is said plainly in the film; men were needed against communism, and a man's past came second. Then he moved to South America. In Bolivia he lived under a new name, did business and made connections with the army. The narrative examines his links to coups and to the security apparatus. The last part covers the extradition in the 1980s and the trial in Lyon. There are witnesses in court, and his lawyer builds the defence on France's own colonial past. What the film is interested in is not one man's evil but how states use people who are useful to them. The documentary uses archive footage, court video and interviews. Robert Badinter and Raymond Aubrac of the resistance are among those speaking. Kevin Macdonald directed. Who it is for: anyone interested in postwar political history and intelligence. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take the weight of what is described; the documentary gives the testimony without cutting away.