We Are All Murderers (1952)

Directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who opposed France's capital punishment, We Are All Murderers, originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, presents a raw portrayal of its four main characters—Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, and Julien Verdeir—as unrepentant killers. The film critiques the cruel process that leads these men to the guillotine, highlighting how the condemned are kept in the dark about their execution until the last moment, forcibly taken without the chance for reflection or reconciliation. By the end, viewers feel as stripped of humanity as the characters themselves. Despite backlash from French law enforcement, the film earned a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.