Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution (2009)

In 1794, French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre produced the worlds first defense of state terror - claiming that the road to virtue lay through political violence. This film combines drama, archive and documentary interviews to examine Robespierres year in charge of the Committee Of Public Safety - the powerful state machine at the heart of Revolutionary France. Contesting Robespierres legacy is Slavoj Zizek, who argues that terror in the cause of virtue is justifiable, and Simon Schama, who believes the road from Robespierre ran straight to the gulag and the 20th-century concentration camp. The drama, based on original sources, follows the life-and-death politics of the Committee during Year Two of the new Republic.