Z

Z, a French-Algerian political thriller, reconstructs in fictionalized form the 1963 killing of a leftist Greek politician and the investigation that followed under heavy political pressure. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays the examining magistrate who slowly uncovers evidence the authorities want buried, while Yves Montand appears as the murdered figure and Irene Papas as his widow. Jacques Perrin, also a producer on the project, portrays a journalist digging into the same case. Director Costa-Gavras built the picture as a thinly veiled attack on the colonels who ruled Greece when it was made, giving the story a grim, unresolved close rather than a triumphant one. Composer Mikis Theodorakis supplied the score. On release the movie became an unexpected worldwide success and is now regarded as one of the defining works of the political-thriller genre. It broke ground at the Academy Awards as the first non-English production nominated for both best picture and best foreign film, taking home the foreign-film prize along with an editing award, and at Cannes it won the Jury Prize while Jean-Louis Trintignant was named best actor.