Everyman
Your Neighbour's Son - The Making of a Torturer
1984 • E9 Feb 26, 1984
In 1984 both Amnesty International and the British Council of Churches are to mount major campaigns highlighting what they call a world-wide 'epidemic' of torture. This film uses both drama and documentary techniques to tell the story of Michalis Petrou , one of the chief torturers of the Greek Colonels' regime (1967-1974). Petrou is probably unique in film history: in this programme he explains how he became a torturer, and admits how far he was prepared to go in tormenting fellow humans to serve a political system. The film shows how Petrou was trained, and also includes interviews with some of his victims. Yet it is not just about what happened in Greece during a certain period in its history. It is an account of the training that could make a torturer of the ordinary young man anywhere - even your neighbour's son.