Amid a tense political climate, the opposition leader is killed in an apparent accident. When a prosecutor smells a cover-up, witnesses get targeted. A thinly veiled dramatization of the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis and its aftermath, “Z” captures the outrage at the US-backed junta that ruled Greece at the time of its release.
Z is a 1969 political thriller film directed by Costa-Gavras, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jorge Semprún, adapted from the 1967 novel by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. With its dark view of Greek politics and its downbeat ending, the film captures the director's outrage about the junta that then ruled Greece. The title refers to a popular Greek protest slogan meaning "he lives," in reference to Lambrakis.
