Also called The Advocate, this is probably one of the stranger based-on-true-events crime dramas to emerge in the 1990s. It has all the trappings of a noir thriller -- apparently disparate plot elements that draw together like a net, a progressively less confused protagonist, supporting characters who offer cryptic utterances, and, of course, a mysterious woman -- but the setting, the French countryside in the late Middle Ages, is decidedly unusual. The plot turns upon the conceit -- based, the opening text tells us, on historical fact -- that medieval law allowed animals to be prosecuted on the same grounds as human beings. The opening scene provides dramatic illustration of the consequences of such thinking: A man and a donkey are about to be executed for the crime of bestiality; the donkey, however, is released based on testimony from character witnesses. Into this less-than-idyllic setting stumbles a naïve young lawyer (Colin Firth, who has since gone on to play less naïve and more buttoned-up characters) and his clerk (Jim Carter), who from the outset seems to know more about everything that's going on than his employer. The lawyer's comment, in an early case, that "Truth, as always, gentlemen, is simple" turns out to be the famous last words. The ensuing tangle involves the murder of a Jewish boy, the pig of the title framed as the killer, a band of itinerant Gypsies to whom the pig belongs, a jaded priest (Ian Holm), and a local landlord in little better state than the peasants he rules. The result is equal parts courtroom and historical drama, with some darkly funny moments and a clear understanding of the medieval mindset.