The Statement

The Statement is a 2003 drama and thriller set in France in the 1990s. Pierre Brossard, played by Michael Caine, is an elderly man who has spent decades living quietly in monasteries and abbeys under the protection of figures in the Catholic Church. During the Second World War he served in the Milice, the paramilitary force of the Vichy government, and was later condemned in his absence for the killing of Jewish prisoners. A pardon and influential friends allowed him to disappear. When a determined judge, Annemarie Livi, and an army colonel, Roux, reopen the case, new legislation makes it possible to pursue war criminals who never served their sentences. At the same time, Brossard is hunted by unknown gunmen, and he begins a desperate flight from one religious refuge to the next.

Norman Jewison directed the film, the nineteenth of the nineteen features he made, following Dinner with Friends. Ronald Harwood wrote the screenplay, and Robert Lantos and Robyn Slovo produced alongside Jewison. Tilda Swinton plays Livi and Jeremy Northam plays Colonel Roux, with Alan Bates, Charlotte Rampling and John Neville among the twenty-six credited cast members.

The film drew a critics' rating of 4.7 out of 10 from 106 reviews, while on TMDB it holds 5.7 out of 10 from 83 votes, placing audience responses slightly above the critical consensus.