Theo Hoffman / Recensies

A man is awoken and informed that he is being arrested, but the charge is never clear. So begins Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel The Trial, but so too could begin any number of stories ripped from the headlines in the decades since. It matters little who makes the arrests — Stalin’s men in 1930s Russia or U.S. intelligence forces in the Middle East after 9/11. A show trial is a show trial (or maybe there’s no trial at all). The detainee’s fate is clear from the moment he’s apprehended. His guilt or innocence doesn't matter.