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Telefilm specially designed and produced for "Dossiers de L'Écran". In April 1958, in Paris, during the Algerian War, a young trainee lawyer, Maître Chabrier, was assigned to defend an Algerian against paratroopers who had beaten him. Maître Orsini-Belcourt, their lawyer, gives this banal affair a political coloring which the prosecutor further accentuates. The young lawyer, who is not however politically involved, loses his composure and sharply attacks the magistrate, thus unwittingly acquiring the reputation of an ally of the FLN. He was asked shortly after to defend a Muslim who was risking his head. The accused is convicted. Then there will be another Algerian whom he will save before the military tribunal. Having become a renowned lawyer, he took on more and more cases relating to the Algerian war. One day he is called to La Santé prison due to a riot and finds himself faced with a crucial choice: engage in the battle by agreeing to deliver a message from an inmate or respect professional rules. Guided by his conscience, he finally decides to warn the person threatened with indictment. Troubles ensued, including indictment before the council of the order, where he was defended and saved by his political opponent, Orsini-Belcourt. He demonstrates that in political affairs, the lawyer is the only defender of freedom, a "devil's advocate".

In East Berlin, Kurt Weigen is a gifted surgeon but he has once again been refused a visa which would have allowed him to attend a medical congress in the West. Karin, his director's daughter, protests vehemently: she much prefers the dress style and the TV shows from "the other side". Gradually both Kurt and Karin change from grouchy citizens to aspiring defectors...

A two-part TV documentary on World War II, made exclusively from archive footage.

The Riom trial is one of the great political trials of French history. It was decided in July 1940 by the leaders of the Vichy regime, whose aim was to convince the French of the evils of the democratic regime, and more specifically of the Popular Front, denounced as responsible for the army's defeat in May-June 1940... They also wanted to demonstrate that the reforms of the "National Revolution" and the policy of collaboration with the occupying forces were the only way to save France. As a result, the leading figures of the Third Republic - Léon Blum, Edouard Daladier, Guy La Chambre and General Gamelin - were brought before a supreme court of justice. The trial began in February 1942, but was suspended in April. Indeed, it was confusing the accusers. Blum and Daladier even questioned Marshal Pétain's legitimacy.