Using only archival footage, Jean-Gabriel Périot charts the evolution of the Red Army Faction members from impassioned intellectuals to urban guerrillas. The range of materials—which include student agitprop films, glib French and German news panel shows, and Fassbinder’s semi-fictional chat with his mother about democracy in Germany in Autumn—underscore the generational and ideological disconnect that (in part) led to the group’s decision to turn to violence and criminal acts. Nimbly constructed, the film’s analytical patterns are less concerned with pathologizing Baader-Meinhof than showing police coercion and how easily the word “terrorist” can be employed for political gain.2015