In this stylish pulp thriller and political story, filmmaker Serge Le Péron brings to light one of the strangest and most disturbing episodes in French history - the unsolved and topical disappearance of the Moroccan liberation activist Ben Barka.
George Figon (Charles Berling), an ex-con from a bourgeois background, receives a strange commission from a criminal organisation: to produce a documentary about decolonisation. Marguerite Duras (Josiane Balasko) will write the narration and George Franju (Jean-Pierre Léaud) will direct. Egged on by a shadowy Moroccan operative, Figon persuades Ben Barka to consider collaborating on the project as a consultant. Little does the latter suspect he is the target of the operation.
Barka's disappearance is still regularly in the news - but what is actually known by the French, Moroccan and US authorities? In his wonderfully acted, gripping and suggestive film, Le Péron plays a clever game with this question. Claustrophobic sets and locations, a cool-toned palette and a jazz-infused score echo the vintage French cinema of Godard and Melville and evoke the mood of the times with undeniable élan.