Le Juge et l'assassin (The Judge and the Assassin)

Towards the end of the 19th century, Joseph Bouvier is ousted from the army for his violent and unpredictable behaviour. He shoots his girlfriend when she rejects him and then shoots himself in the head. Both miraculously survive, and Bouvier ends up in a filthy asylum. When he is finally released from the hospital, he wanders the country roads of France and over the course of the next five years he rapes and murders two dozen teenage farm workers. He is ultimately captured and proclaims himself as God’s anarchist. The ambitious provincial judge Emile Rousseau has taken on the case and is determined to use it to advance his standing and career. However, he runs the risk of a humiliating setback if Bouvier is declared insane…