Plot (L'Attentat)

Made in 1972 as a French, Italian and German co-production, Plot (French title L'Attentat) runs 120 minutes as a political thriller. Yves Boisset directed it. It draws on a real affair: the Moroccan opposition figure Mehdi Ben Barka, exiled in 1963, vanished in Paris on 29 October 1965. French police were soon found to have abducted him, fueling talk of a plot among Moroccan agents, French intelligence and the CIA.

The film centers on Sadiel (Gian Maria Volonté), an exiled opposition leader from an Arab country. American and French secret services want him removed as quietly as possible, which rules out Switzerland and means bringing him to Paris. They choose François Darien (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a far-left intellectual detained at an anti-Vietnam War protest. Sadiel trusts him; Darien, arranging a televised debate, thinks he is doing a favor but is an indispensable cog in the plot. Michel Piccoli plays Colonel Kassar, chief of Sadiel's country's secret service; François Périer is a police commissioner who starts digging. Jean Seberg, Bruno Cremer and Karin Schubert also appear.

It opened in Italy and France in October 1972 and was a big box-office success, though critics found the script didactic. In the United States it was released as The French Conspiracy, a title echoing the hit The French Connection and its star Roy Scheider, who also appears here. It won the Silver Prize at the 8th Moscow Film Festival in July 1973.