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Zita

A special closing night screening brings you the classic political thriller, Z which is based on true events of the assassination of left-wing MP, Grigoris Lambrakis. It follows the investigation into the apparent involvement of the authorities in the murder and explores just how far the government will go to eliminate its political opposition.

1969/ Political / Rating:R18 / Drama/ Thriller
/ Director: Costa Gavras

"The best films are those that don't just tell a story, but also create an experience. Z certainly has that impact. From the first scene to the last, watching this film genuinely does feel like a refreshingly new experience…even today, the film is still highly regarded and has much to appeal to a new generation of cinema goers." http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_Z_rev.html

"This is probably the best political thriller that I have ever seen, and 31 years later, is still excellent, if not brilliant." A. Hogan (Brooklyn, USA)

Starring:

Yves Montand
Irene Papas
and Jean-Louis Trintignant

Music by Mikis Theodorakis

Winner - Best Film Editing, Best Foreign Language Film, 1969 Academy Awards.
Also Cannes Film Festival Awards.

Cast: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francois Perier, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner, Pierre Dux, Julien Guiomar, Jean Daste

Other credits:

Script: Costas Gavras, Jorge Semprún (Based on a novel by Vassilis Vassilikos)
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Music: Mikis Theodorakis

Costas Gavras

Costa-Gavras gleaned his political activism literally from his father's knee. The senior Gavras was a Greek government functionary who performed heroically in the resistance movement against the occupying Nazi forces in World War II. At war's end, the outspoken Gavras found himself labeled a communist by the new regime. As a result, young Costa-Gavras was denied entrance to the U.S., where he hoped to study filmmaking. He moved instead to Paris, studying literature at the Sorbonne and working as an assistant to several of France's top directors. Costa-Gavras displayed both the techniques he'd learned from such masters as Renoir and Demy (and the tricks he'd picked up through incessant viewings of American films) in his first directorial effort, The Sleeping Car Murders (1966). 

It would be the last pure-entertainment effort in Costa-Gavras' career; once the Greek government was toppled in a military junta, the director concentrated all his energies in turning out fast-moving, entertaining cinematic tracts. Z, a 1969 indictment of the repressiveness of the Greek "Colonels," was an international smash (even yielding a hit soundtrack); it won multiple awards, including the "Best Foreign Language Film" Oscar. 

Most often in collaboration with his favorite actor Yves Montand, Costa-Gavras continued pouring out his hatred of political oppression in such subsequent films as The Confession, State of Siege and Special Section. His style was several degrees removed from subtlety, and his films drove home their messages with the force of a jackhammer. 

In his first American film, Missing (1982), Costa-Gavras casts Jack Lemmon in the role that Yves Montand might have played in other circumstances; the film (which won a "Best Screenplay Adaptation" Oscar for the director) was based on the true story of an American kidnapped in Chile, a tragic consequence of the American-backed dictatorial regime. Making films for his own edification and not for those of the "politically correct" elite, Costa-Gavras lost many of his adherents (and gained many others) with his pro-Palestinian Hanna K. (1983). 

In 1982, Costa-Gavras was appointed president of the Cinematheque Francaise. The Music Box (1989), an uncharacteristically restrained story of a respected naturalized American citizen (Armin Mueller-Stahl) accused of being a Nazi war criminal; was not a financial success, but did win the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival.
SOURCE: Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmography:

2002 AMEN
1997 Mad City
1995 Lumière et Compagnie
1990 The Music Box
1988 Betrayed
1982 Missing
1970 L'Aveu
1969 Z

Awards:

42nd Academy Awards, 1969
Best Film Editing
Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay
Cannes Film Festival Awards