THE DUTY TO JUDGE

Criminal justice in France is handed down by popular juries and, as a result, every citizen can be summoned to sit at the Assizes. But juries intrigue people. We know nothing of what is asked of them: they are sworn to secrecy in their deliberations and court hearings are off-limits to the audio-visual media. “Le devoir de juger” sheds some light on this mystery. The director, having received special authorization to follow the daily life of a session of the Seine St-Denis Assizes, leads us into the closed world of these judges for a day, ordinary people who, by virtue of their conviction, just happen to be invested with the power to decide on another person’s fate. A terrifying power? and an experience that some of them do not emerge from unscathed.