Muriel Leferle 1999

Muriel Leferle is 22-years-old, a convicted felon, HIV-positive, and can talk her way out of nearly anything. Filmmaker Raymond Depardon first encountered Leferle while shooting his documentary Delits Flagrants/Caught In The Act, about criminals dealing with the judicial system, and eventually decided her story was too good to limit to the 20 minutes of screen time she won in that picture. Muriel Leferle tells her hair-raising life story in greater scope than in the earlier film (both the truth and the version she gives to the judge); despite an unrepentant attitude about her life of crime, Leferle comes off as oddly likable, with street smarts and spunk to spare.