The Professional 1981

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Joss Beaumont, an SDCE agent known as Joss, is dispatched to Malagawi, a fictional African country that stands in for the dawn of the 1980s, with a mission to kill President-for-life Colonel Njala, a dictator hostile to French interests. But the political winds shift: rather than a straightforward hit, the Élysée orders that he be denounced rather than recalled, complicating his fate from the start.

After a rapid, tightly controlled trial where he is drugged to confess, Beaumont is sentenced to forced labor. Two brutal years pass, marked by abuse and torture, until a moment of desperate resilience allows him to escape. He returns to Paris with a singular aim: to complete the original mission by assassinating Njala during a diplomatic visit to France, turning a political reversal into a personal vendetta.

Back in the capital, Beaumont’s former superiors grow uneasy. Colonel Martin and his team will stop at nothing to prevent his plan from succeeding. Beaumont navigates a fraught social landscape, oscillating between his old life with his wife, Jeanne, and his mistress, Alice Ancelin, a figure within the secret services who becomes entwined in the overall risk and intrigue. Elisabeth Margoni as Jeanne and Cyrielle Clair as Alice Ancelin anchor his loyalties as the stakes rise.

Opposing him is Commissioner Rosen of the Repression and Intervention Brigade, a formidable and merciless figure who harbors a personal hatred for Beaumont. Robert Hossein embodies Rosen as the hunt grows harsher and more brutal, yet Beaumont stays one step ahead in a game of dangerous improvisation.

Beaumont’s ingenuity reaches a peak when he stages a deception so thorough that many believe he is dead. By grafting his identity to Rosen, he buys time and then seizes Inspector Farges, who arrived at the morgue to confirm the corpse, enabling a dramatic return to Njala’s circle. The gambit forces Farges to become an unwilling participant in Beaumont’s convoluted plan. Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu embodies Farges in this tense hostage sequence.

The action culminates at the Château de Ferrières, where Beaumont confronts Njala in a perilous gambit. With deft sleight of hand, he hands an empty revolver to Njala and lures him toward the window, knowing the pretense may falter at any moment. Njala, compelled by the situation, points the weapon at Beaumont, while Farges—believing Beaumont is the aggressor—fires the fatal shot that ends the dictator’s reign. Pierre Saintons portrays Njala in this pivotal moment.

Amid the political fallout, the minister orders Beaumont’s capture, a command pressed by Colonel Martin. Jean Desailly takes on the role of the Minister, providing the final legal cover for the regime’s actions. The order cascades down to Farges, whose intervention seals Beaumont’s fate with a back-penetrating bullet, ending the mission and leaving the political landscape in turmoil. The story closes on the consequences of a plan that began as vengeance and ended as a heavy miscalculation of power.