L'esecutore (2013)

9th October 1981: France abolishes the death penalty. The last execution: a 28 year old boy killed by decapitation. For 190 years, only one instrument was used to annihilate legally someone's life: the guillotine. How is it possible that the guillotine continued to operate in Europe up to 1981? The shocking confession of the one man authorized to kill with the bloodiest instrument of death ever: the guillotine. The death penalty as seen from a disturbing point of view: not that of the victims of the sentence, but that of the individual who is authorized and obliged by the law to apply it. His name was: "Chief Executioner to Guillotine". He was the one who, as required by the French Penal code, had to lower the shaft making a 40 kg blade to hurtle onto the sentenced's nape. What does it feel like being on the other side? What does it feel like being the only one authorized by the law to commit a murder? Based on documents and events of the age. "The Executioner" shows true events combined with disturbing details from the chronicles of the time. Just one man is authorized by the law to operate the blade that will kill another human being. Filmed inside a former high security prison. This is his story.