The Daily Telegraph
Edition 1THU 09 SEP 2004, Page T04
Politics still thrills
By MICHAEL BODEY

Some are quite comfortable with their success. Others, such as Costa-Gavras, arguably Greece's greatest film director, barely believe they're part of the process.
His defining work, the stunning political thriller, Z, will feature as a highlight of this week's Greek Film Festival, 35 years after its release.
"I talk to you from Paris to Australia about the movie, that doesn't happen very often," he laughs, before conceding he hasn't truly reconciled why Z became so popular, scoring the jury prize at Cannes and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film along the way.
"It's like a miracle, sometimes it happens in cinema and I'm not sure the director has something to do [with] that," he adds.
"Me, the producer, the actors had to fight against something at that moment and for me as a Greek living outside [Greece], the only way to do that was to do a movie."
They had to fight against an extreme right wing overthrow of Greek politics by a military junta and subsequent corruption and oppression.
Costa-Gavras (real name Konstantinos Gavras) produced a stunning, passionate film based on that 1966 uprising.
"For a while we hoped it would be something but people keep talking about it 30 years later. It's a miracle," he says.
"The only explanation I have [for its success] is a lady director from Poland who said that movie was made from passion and audiences feel it."
Films such as Z or All The President's Men have become rarer as movies dumb down. Political thrillers today are more about the thrills than politics.
"Today things are much more different," he says. "People are trying to find the right road to take. Back then it was very easy because you had the Communist bloc and the western world.
"Today we talk about Saddam Hussein and how it's good to overthrow him, yet we have dictators in Africa but everyone likes them because they have good economic relationships with us. Africa is a big tragedy but nobody cares about it."
The 71-year-old French immigrant still has the energy to care. He's finishing another movie and loves that filmmaking can still totally absorb him.
"Completely. And I like that," he chuckles.
"The world is so difficult, so to be taken by a movie is a way to escape from those problems. It's a distraction for a few months, not for life, then you come back to the real thing."

* The Greek Film Festival opens today until September 21 at the Norton St Cinema, Leichhardt
Caption:  Passionate: Director Costa-Gavras
Illus:  Photo
BIOG:  Costa-Gavras Column:  Sydney Live
Section:  FEATURES

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