Carlos

Carlos (2010) is a sprawling political thriller from French director Olivier Assayas — watch it online on iFILM. Édgar Ramírez plays Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the Venezuelan revolutionary who called himself Carlos the Jackal and ran a for-hire terrorist network across two decades of Cold War chaos.

The film traces him from his early days with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine through the 1975 Vienna OPEC headquarters raid — where he held eleven oil ministers hostage and walked away with a ransom — to his gradual transformation from ideologue into a mercenary asset for whichever regime would shelter him. Assayas shows the machinery clearly: the East German safe houses, the Syrian handlers, the negotiations with governments that publicly condemned him. Carlos believed he was history in motion. The film is colder about that.

Originally cut to five hours for Canal+, the theatrical version runs to nearly three and a half. Ramírez spent years preparing the role and took home a Golden Globe for it. For viewers drawn to Munich or The Baader Meinhof Complex — films that examine political violence with patience rather than verdict — Carlos covers the same terrain with more geographic scope and less sentimentality. Stream Carlos (2010) online on iFILM.