Arieh Worthalter is Pierre Goldman, a Jewish writer and activist pleading not-guilty at the Paris hearing. A cantankerous left-wing celebrity, he barks from the dock at witnesses and elicits yelps of support from fans in the gallery. When not batting away incriminating testimony, he is prone to grandstanding displays of fatalism and righteous indignation.

As with Anatomy of a Fall – which shares creative DNA with this – Cedric Kahn’s film (co-written with Nathalie Hertzberg) reminds us of the clout a good courtroom drama can land. Scenes of chaos and shouting gradually give way to ratcheting tension as the truth comes to teeter on a knife edge. No score. No flashbacks. Just robust conviction from two sides and the ghosts of wartime undercutting opinion.

Worthalter is extraordinary as the revolutionary zealot who we struggle to get a read on, as is ­Arthur Harari (co-writer of ­Anatomy of a Fall and partner of its director, Justine Triet) as his exasperated defence counsel.

Five stars