Carlos

In this critically acclaimed feature-length biopic, French film-maker Olivier Assayas charts the rise and fall of the Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Édgar Ramírez takes the lead role, portraying Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who was born in 1949, and whose father was such a committed Marxist that he named his other two sons Vladimir and Lenin. But it was Ilich's blood-soaked crimes under the guise of Carlos the Jackal that brought him to the attention of the world. The drama begins in 1973, when the murderous ideologue's fight for Palestinian rights led him to conduct attacks in London and Paris on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The film goes on to track his key role in a plot against the heads of OPEC (the men in charge of global oil production); his clashes with the French police; his changing relationship with his Middle Eastern backers; the frustrations he experienced when based in eastern Europe; and how an unexpected shift in world order turned the terrorist's life upside down.